Free Web Parental Control Software

For parents looking to filter certain areas of the web for their children, a free program to take a look at is K9 Web Protection. Don’t let the price tag of free fool you, K9 Web Protection offers many features, including:

• Block 60 Content Categories
• Time Restrictions
• Exceptions
• Blocking Effects
• URL Keywords
• Web Search Options
• View Reports of Internet Activity

K9 Web Protection, basically works by their service categorizing web sites and then whenever a page is visited, it checks the categories you have set to be allowed against how K9 has it classified.

I have not personally used K9 Web Protection, so if anyone has any feedback, please post it below.

Minimize Any Application To The System Tray

If you have an application which you like to constantly have open, but hate the space it is always eating up on the Task Bar, then TrayIt is a perfect application for you. TrayIt allows you to easily minimize any application to the system tray instead of the task bar in the event the application does not natively support this function… for example certain Email clients.

Instructions on how to use TrayIt are located on their download page, but the program usage is extremely simple. TrayIt is totally free and there is no installation required, just double-click the program to start. If you already have a bunch of stuff in your system tray, this may not be a good fit for as it will “pile” stuff on top.

Making Firefox Look And Feel Like Another Browser

Opening A Firefox Link In Internet Explorer

If you are a Firefox user, you know certain websites are quirky or just simply will not work correctly in Firefox (such as Windows Update), and you simply have to use Internet Explorer. While these websites are somewhat few and far between, they exist none-the-less.

You have several ways of handling this sites like this:

• Launch IE and paste the URL you want to access.
• Use an extension which utilizes the IE engine in a Firefox tab, such as IE Tab.
• (My preferred method) Use the the IE View extension which allows you to right click on a link (or the current page) and select “Open In IE”. Doing this launches Internet Explorer to the location you have selected.

Both IE Tab and IE View allow you to set certain URL’s to always open in IE so you don’t have to invoke the function each time. I prefer IE View simply because it uses IE to view the page since it launches the browser totally. There is no intepretation, simulation or middleman to IE behavior… just IE.

Recovering A Deleted File

In general the Windows Recycle Bin works well as a simple safeguard from accidentally deleting files. A problem comes if you empty or don’t use the Recycle Bin and your file is long gone. All hope may not be lost though if you need to recover a file which has been permanently deleted, just give Recuva a shot at it.

In a nutshell, when you “permanently” delete a file, the actual 1’s and 0’s are not removed, only the operating system’s reference to it. The file actually remains fully intact until the OS writes data over the “unreferenced file”. Like any deleted file recovery, Recuva works by looking for unreferenced data and allows you to recover it. Because of this, there is no guarantee that you will be able to recover the file, especially one which was deleted a long time ago.

Recuva is completely free and can really help you in a bind. It can even work to help you recover files deleted from camera’s and MP3 players.

Google Reader For RSS Feeds

I have to admit, I was a bit late in taking advantage of RSS feeds. Anyone who utilizes them will probably attest, like I will now, that they are an incredibly easy and flexible way to keep track of recent content on several web sites. While I have “experimented” (I use this loosely because I consider experiementing in this case to mean I tried it for a short bit) with several RSS readers freely available, the one I found myself really liking was the Google Reader.

Since I am already a Gmail user, the interface to Google Reader is vitually idententical with the look and feel. Additionally, the speed didn’t seem to suffer at all considering it is all hosted online without me having to install anything. This is also the biggest advantage of Google Reader over a client program - I can access Google Reader just as easily from home and work without having to sync anything. If I add a feed, read an article, flag something, etc., it reflects in my Google Reader account so I can pick it back up from any web browser.

If you already have an RSS reader you like, keep at it, but if you like to read feeds from several locations, I would highly recommend you give Google Reader a look.

Stretch Often When Sitting At A Computer

This tip is for those of you who work in front a computer all day. It is very important that you take frequent breaks throughout the day the day to stretch your body.

I’m not going to make any suggestions as to what exactly you should stretch, instead I will point you to this informative article about stretches you should do if you happen to be sitting at a desk a lot. If you don’t stretch, you can experience aches and long term you might develop a bit of a hunchback if you don’t have proper posture when sitting.

Typically, I do a few stretches everytime I refill my coffee or water, but work out a system where you routinely do some stretches.

SEO For Firefox Extension

Analyze (And Optimize) Your Windows XP Boot Time

Over time, your Windows XP machine can start to slow on bootup time. This is either due to impatience on waiting for the machine to load (sound familiar?), but most likely to additional software which adds overhead to the boot process. The obvious tool to use to analyze and modify the bootup process is MSConfig, but unfortunately it doesn’t actually tell you the benefits you get from removing items from the startup process. In order to get a full analysis, use Microsoft’s free tool, BootVis (download it here).

BootVis analyzes the time it takes for each step of the process so you can see where most of the time is spent and adjust accordingly. The use of BootVis is relatively simple, just go to Trace > Reboot to have your system analyzed and then adjust accordingly. There is even an “optimize” function built in for those of you who want to let BootVis determine the best setup for your system. Of course, be careful when you use the optimize function because it might disable something you need.

Overall the goal of BootVis is to get your computer to boot to a usable state in 30 seconds or better. Depending on machine speed, this is a very reasonable amount of time. Either way, this is a great tool to have.

Take Advanced Control Of Windows XP

One tool system administrators take advantage of when fine tuning how how servers work is by utilizing the Local  and Group Policy Editors. These tools allow you to control virtually every aspect of security and behavior of your Windows machine.

One great thing about Windows XP Pro is it includes the policy editor, but it can be intimidating for normal users to use. Additionally, XP Home doesn’t have this, leaving users to have to modify the registry. The better alternative to both of these is the free Windows XP Security Console program by Doug Knox.

The program puts all the modifiable features into convenient check boxes so you can get all the control without any of the confusion. I definitely see this tool being useful for both normal and power users.

Make Your PC Look Like A Mac

I’ve linked to articles in the past about making your [insert version of Windows] look like [insert another version of Windows], so today I’m going to link to an article about ways to make your Windows install look like a Mac OS X. So those of you who want the Mac OS X look without the actual Mac, you might want to take a look.

The article points out 5 free software packages which give your Windows install the feel of a Mac. The only real “catch” is some of the items have a paid “full” version and of course, the obligatory:

Bear in mind, though, that they may well use up your memory and make older PCs run noticeably slower

So if you want to see what “the other side” looks like, these may not be much, but it sure beats having to buy a Mac to find out.

Free SEO Tools

If you are into the madness that is SEO (search engine optimization), there are so many considerations and things to keep track of that it can drive you nuts. What better way than some tools to help you out?

This article posted on Linux.com, Increase page ranking with FOSS tools for SEO, is a great resource for those interested. From keyword analysis (and suggestions) to back-link tracers, this article points you to many tools you will most definitely find helpful.

One thing to keep in mind though, is these tools should be used responsibly. Designing for search engines (making the readers 2nd) is never a good idea. As the author points out in his conclusion:

You can use SEO to be honest when describing your Web site, or lie to try to get a better page rank. […] However, [being dishonest] harms search engines and their users, and in the long run, harms the webmasters too. By fooling others, you may hurt yourself in the end.

Making Your Computer Setup More Energy Efficient

I’m going to go the route of a public service announcement today, one which can hopefully save you some green as well… which is always good.

One thing we can all do to help the common good is practice conservation. While you read this, consider what computer equipment you have running versus what you are using. If you have several computers and/or printers/scanners/etc. running, are you using them frequently enough to warrant them constantly running? These are questions addressed in this fantastic article, Extreme energy makeover: Home office edition.

Basically, the author goes through his entire office setup and examines the energy use of each device. He then weighs the energy use against the benefits to drastically reduce his energy consumption. The end result is drastic savings in both energy and energy costs. By reducing the power usage, money is saved both directly and indirectly (reduced air conditioning costs, etc.). While I think the author goes a bit to the extreme (hence the title I suppose) in some cases, overall I think this article is right on… so much so that I have already started to use some of his ideas in my home setup.

Every little bit we can save helps. Remember the problems we create today will have to be dealt with by the next generation and just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. So be smart and practical and your contributions can help save you a lot more than money.

Making Your Computer Setup More Energy Efficient

I’m going to go the route of a public service announcement today, one which can hopefully save you some green as well… which is always good.

One thing we can all do to help the common good is practice conservation. While you read this, consider what computer equipment you have running versus what you are using. If you have several computers and/or printers/scanners/etc. running, are you using them frequently enough to warrant them constantly running? These are questions addressed in this fantastic article, Extreme energy makeover: Home office edition.

Basically, the author goes through his entire office setup and examines the energy use of each device. He then weighs the energy use against the benefits to drastically reduce his energy consumption. The end result is drastic savings in both energy and energy costs. By reducing the power usage, money is saved both directly and indirectly (reduced air conditioning costs, etc.). While I think the author goes a bit to the extreme (hence the title I suppose) in some cases, overall I think this article is right on… so much so that I have already started to use some of his ideas in my home setup.

Every little bit we can save helps. Remember the problems we create today will have to be dealt with by the next generation and just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. So be smart and practical and your contributions can help save you a lot more than money.

Mounting An ISO As A Drive

Better Gmail (For Firefox)

I posted a few days ago about making Gmail the default mail handler for HTTP (mailto tags), which is working great for me, but more ambitious users of Gmail and Firefox should take a look the Better Gmail Firefox extension (Note: If your Gmail account has been upgraded and you are using Gmail 2.0, you need this version of the extension).

Better Gmail further leverages functions of Gmail not available through the standard interface, including (but not limited to):

• Moving the new message count in front of “Gmail - Inbox” in the title.
• Removal of the annoying spam message counter.
• More descriptive icons for attachments, instead of just the paperclip.
• More macro key shortcuts.

If you are a heavy user of Gmail in the web interface along with the Firefox browser, this extension is definitely worth having.

A Glance At How Google IT Works

Google truly is a marvel of both performance and innovation. If you read any tech publications, odds are you have seen an article on the topic of “how Google does it”.

If you are interested in the subject, I would suggest this article about Google’s IT strategy. In reading the article, you can easily see Google is definitely a business comprised of developers and IT engineers as virtually all their software (including their development tools) is custom developed and their hardware infrastructure is a vast collection of finely tuned commodity machines.

As you will see when you read, Google has everything from custom Linux kernels powering their machines to their own database manipulation programming languages. Whether you are a computer specialist or not, this article is definitely worth the read.

Source Lines Of Code Counter

Developers out there wanting to document or just know a little bit more about their creations might be interested in this lines of code counter tool.

This free utility from Microsoft is fully customizable with its rules so it is totally language independent. Basically, you connect to a location and your source files are downloaded and the code lines are counted. Since you can customize the rules for a line, comments are ignored in the count.

By no means is this a necessary tool, but it is interesting to see how large your code base is.

Setting Gmail As Your Default Email

Many of you are probably Gmail users. If you are like me, you only use the web interface and don’t bother to have an email client installed on your computer at all. The only problem with this is whenever you click on an email link (mailto) on a web page, it doesn’t open in Gmail by default.

If the above is a problem for you, then this Gmail how to will solve the problem. Basically, all you have to do is download the Gmail notifier and set an option and then Gmail will be your default HTML mail application.

Loading A Older Computer With A Newer OS

My wife recently had a laptop die on her (after 8 years of service), so I’m having to a appropriate my old Linux laptop and load Windows 2000 on it (thanks to some advice on the PC Mech forums). I was able to cannibalize an extra 64 MB of memory and a 20 GB hard drive from the old machine, but I knew it was going to be slower than her 500 Mhz machine. So when loading the OS, I took extra time to try to squeeze the best performance out of it:

1. Loaded the OS fresh.
2. Installed the latest service pack and then ran Windows updates.
3. Disabled all the animated menus options and deleted all temporary files.
4. Went through all the services and disabled anything which wasn’t absolutely necessary for operation.
5. Defragged the hard drive. The idea here is the OS is fully patched with all the temporary files removed and (since this is Windows 2000) really isn’t going to change the amount of hard drive space the OS needs.

Since the machine is mostly going to be used only for Internet browsing and very basic office document editing, I did the following:

1. Loaded Firefox (custom install with none of the plugins loaded).
2. Installed the basic “requirements”, a PDF reader, flash plugin, etc.
3. Installed OpenOffice.
4. Again, cleared all temporary files.
5. Defrag again. Since all the core programs are loaded this “optimizes” them as much as possible.

Of course the machine is still limited by its resources (266 Mhz, 144 MB RAM), it responds reasonably well. So if you loading a newer OS on relatively dated hardware, take the extra time to try to do things as carefully as possible. Any speed performance you can get will be much more noticeable.

The Lowest Price Isn’t Always The Best Deal

Appropriate for the day, I thought I would post a tip for the deal hunter in all of us. When shopping online, it is extremely easy to do price comparisons. Instead of having to drive across town, you simply visit a couple of sites or type a few keywords in product search engine.

Online (and especially online only) retailers know this. That said some are “less than forth coming” with what you are getting and the terms of purchase and return.

A few things you can look for that something isn’t right:

• If the price is too good to be true, it probably is.
• Make sure there is (at least) a mailing address and phone number supplied on the website.
• See how long the company has been in business. You can do a simple search on any domain registrar to see how long the website has been registered.
• Online reviews are misleading. Anyone can post about any retailer they want.
• If you have a bad feeling, there is probably a good reason.

Just be smart. Playing it safe and ordering from somewhere reputable, in my opinion, is usually the best bet as they want your continued business.

3D Header Creator

A neato tool I found online the other day is a web application which allows you to make 3D text instantly. I don’t really have an immediate need for something like this, but it would be ideal if you wanted to create simple logo.

The usage is pretty simple, enter the text you want, select your font size, display style and then color. Clicking the preview button then displays the output. You can save the generated image to your machine and use in your own creations.

Google And Yahoo Offerings

Google and Yahoo compete directly for Internet search and advertising traffic, but there seems to be an “indirect” (which in reality is direct I guess) competition between the two for online service offerings. Of course the ones people are probably most familiar with are Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

If email is the only one you are familiar with, this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. There are literally dozens of free services both Yahoo and Google make available. Take a look and see if there is something for you:

• Google Services
• Yahoo Services

Turn Windows XP Into A Full Media Center

If you are looking to transform your existing (or build a new) XP machine into a full blown media center, rather than spending a small fortune on software, give MediaPortal a whirl.

MediaPortal is an open source software package which allows you to do basically anything you would find on a full media center suite. Rather than list them here, check out the feature list on their site.

MediaPortal requires XP with SP2 installed, so unfortunately you can’t run it on a previous OS (98/2000) you might have lying around. To me, this looks very similar to the Linux package, MythTV, only for Windows.

Don’t Go Overboard With Your Antivirus And Spyware Protection

In my opinion, one of the reasons 1 GB has become the de facto “real world” minimum requirement for loading Windows is because after the operating system is loaded, a slew of resource hungry watch guard programs are loaded. When I say watch guard, I’m referring to antivirus, antispyware and firewall programs.

A good guideline is a single antivirus program and (up to) 2 antispyware programs should be enough. If you don’t have a hardware firewall/router, the built in Windows firewall should be adequate for most everyone.

I understand a computer needs to be protected, but a computer’s sole purpose isn’t to run monitoring programs, it is to use it for what you need. A quick way to slow down any machine is to load it up with monitoring programs which not only consume memory, but also have to give anything you want to do their seal of approval before allowing it.

For a quick example, our training machines here run Windows XP Pro on 1.5 Ghz Celerons with 512 MB of RAM with no antivirus or antispyware at all… and run faster than several production machines with twice the capatibilities running the same programs.

Free Windows Drive Imaging Software

As many of you probably know, the ultimate way to backup your hard drive is by creating an image of it. With an image, you can restore the exact state of your system to that at the time the image was created.

While there are several commercial packages to do this, a free alternative you might want to give a try is DriveImage XML. This program features many of the features you would see in the commercial products, including (from their web page):

• Backup logical drives and partitions to image files
• Browse these images, view and extract files
• Restore these images to the same or a different drive
• Copy directly from drive to drive
• Schedule automatic backups with your Task Scheduler

If all you need to do is manipulate hard drive images, this may be a good fit for you.

Microsoft Office File Viewers And Converters

Automatic File Version Tracking And Backup

Several days ago I wrote about Windows Vista’s improved restore point functionality for recovering documents, of course the problem is this function is only available on the Business and Ultimate editions. This got me thinking about finding something which would work on other editions of Windows. So with a little searching, I found FileHamster.

FileHamster basically accomplishes what the Vista restore points do with a little more functionality. You simply configure the directories you want monitored and the files inside are automatically backed up when changes are made. Additionally, you can add notes about each change you make. The only drawback compared to Windows Vista’s function is you have to configure the locations to monitor yourself while Windows does it on your system as a whole. For the most part you are probably only going to want to monitor your My Documents, so this shouldn’t be too big of a deal.

This is great utility for anyone to have, but developers will want to take special notice as this provides a great vehicle for backtracking.

Connecting A Mac To A Windows Share

At home, I run a Windows XP machine and my wife runs a Mac. One thing we wanted to do is put all our music in a single place so we can access it from our preferred music players… iTunes for her, Winamp for me.

Since my computer has the bigger hard drive, it made the most sense to put it there, so here are the steps I did to make connection as easy as possible:

1. On my computer (Windows, the “server”), I shared the folder containing the music files and set the security options to allow “Everyone” both full control in sharing permissions (Sharing tab > Permissions) and in the file system security settings (Security tab).
2. Next, in order to allow her to connect without a password, I enabled the “Guest” account on my machine.
3. Now all I had to do was connect her Mac to the share, so I followed this article on Apple’s site. Also, I made sure I set the connection profile as a favorite for easy access.
4. Easy enough, she is now able to fully control her music on my machine.

Note: The security settings I did above opened the music share up to full control for everyone. If you have a wireless network, make sure it is locked down to prevent “rouge” connections.

Fine Tuning SpamBayes To Reduce Spam In Your Outlook Inbox

I’ve written a couple of times singing the praise of, in my opinion the best Outlook spam tool, SpamBayes. So in this tip, I figured I would focus on how to fine tune the settings for Outlook.

The first thing you will want to do is add the Spam column (available under the User Defined list) in your Outlook data folders which receive most of your mail. I would recommend the Inbox, Junk Suspects and Junk E-Mail folders at the least. Once you add this column, you will be able to see the spam “score” for each item. The lower the number the better.

After about a week, review your Junk Suspects folder and sort by the Spam column. Take note of where the highest concentration of spam is and where no false positives (items flagged as spam which are not spam) were identified, for example higher than 50%, 60%, etc. Now click on the SpamBayes Manager which is located on the Outlook Toolbar. Modify the settings for definite spam to match the number you noted above. This will tell SpamBayes to move these items directly to your Junk E-Mail.

Personally, I have found setting a tolerance of 15% for possible spam and 45% for definite spam works best, but run the test above to find your own magic settings. Either way, taking a short amount of time to set up and continually fine tuning your spam settings is the best way to keep your Inbox clean.

Windows Private Character Editor

One “hidden” utility built into Windows which can actually be quite useful is the Private Character Editor. This tool allows you to create up to 6,400 unique characters for use in your very own font library.

To open it, go to Start > Run and enter: eudcedit

Usage is simple. You basically select a font code you want to apply your new logo/character/etc. to and then click edit. From there you use familiar paint tools to make your new creation which you can later access through the character map. Detailed help is available inside the program.

If all you need is one special character to put in your documents, this might fit the bill.

Temporary Image Hosting

If you are ever in the need to make an image available temporarily, for example when troubleshooting an issue and you need to post a screenshot, it can be a pain sometimes if you are communicating via a message board which does not allow uploading. If this is the case, try TinyPic.

TinyPic is a free service which allows you to upload a picture or video and then gives you a link others can use to access it. Simple enough. The best part about this, is you don’t have to have an account to use TinyPic. When you visit their site, there is an upload box available on the front page so you can quickly get the job done.

Adding Columns To Your Outlook Inbox

For the most part, Outlook’s default view for messages (Inbox, Sent Items, etc.) fits the bill nicely, however sometimes you might want to change the view to add or remove certain information.

Here is how to change the available columns in Outlook:

1. Go to the folder in question, for example, the Inbox.
2. Right click on the column header and select “Field Chooser”.
3. Use the drop down list at the top of the Field Chooser dialog to select the category which contains the field to add. Usually, “Frequently-used fields” contains what you would want.
4. Drag the item from the Field Chooser dialog to the Outlook header. A display marker should indicate where this new field will be placed.
5. To remove an existing field, simply drag the column header to the Field Chooser dialog.
6. Close the Field Chooser dialog to apply your changes.

Now the new column information will be available for every item. One nice features is each “view” (for example, your Inbox is a view, Sent Items is a view, a sub-folder of Inbox is a view, etc.) can be customized individually, so you can view relevant information in each particular area.

Learn To Type Faster

There is no doubt that knowing how to type fast and accurately is a huge advantage. You can get more done quickly just because you don’t spend your time looking for keys or correcting typos. Of course, practice approaches perfection, but it never hurts to have a tool to help out.

TypeFaster Typing Tudor is a program designed to help you learn how to “properly” type both fast and accurately. It supports many different keyboard layouts and tools, such as games and customizable lessons. A full feature list is available on their website. 

If you are still a “hunt and peck” typist or are looking to become more proficient with the keyboard, then give TypeFaster a look.

Buying A Prebuilt Vs. A Custom Built Computer

If you are in the market for a new computer and are currently weighing the options between purchasing a prebuilt computer from a manufacturer (i.e. Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.) and a computer you build yourself, allow me to humbly weigh my thoughts on some advantages and disadvantages of each:

Prebuilt Advantages:

• Usually significantly cheaper. 
• Works out of the box, no worries with compatibility.
• OS is preinstalled and ready to go.
• Typically includes necessary utilities (DVD player software, CD/DVD burning, etc.)
• Generally, the system as a whole is supported.

Prebuilt Disadvantages:

• Usually no control over the OS available. 
• Typically limited upgradibility.
• No control over the quality of parts.
• Many times components are proprietary and expensive to replace when off warranty.

For the most part the advantages and disadvantages of the custom built computer are the opposite of the prebuilt, so just to be thorough, here goes…

Custom built advantages:

• You have total control over the components going into your machine.
• Easy to upgrade and repair (since you built it).
• You have your choice of the OS to use.

Custom built disadvantages:

• The price usually ends up more expensive than the same components on a prebuilt system.
• It’s up to you to make sure all the parts are compatible.
• If you use Windows, there is an extra cost of the OS and some utilities (i.e. DVD player software, etc.).
• No tech support, although you probably wouldn’t need it if you choose to build your own.

Do You Burn A Lot Of Music CD’s?

If you find yourself burning a lot of music CD’s, odds are you probably really only get long term use out of a few of them while the rest either get lost, thrown away, become coasters, etc.

Instead of this somewhat wasteful approach, take advantage of rewritable CD’s. While you can buy blank CD-R’s for virtually nothing, CD-RW’s are extremely inexpensive as well. With CD-RW’s you can burn your music and listen until you get tired of it and then reuse the CD. If you do come across something you like and want to keep on CD permanently, just burn it to a CD-R to free your CD-RW up.

In the long run, this approach is more economical for both yourself and the environment.

Test Your New Hardware Before Using It

Invalid Drive Letter Errors When Installing Programs On Vista

One of the first problems I ever ran up against in Windows Vista was a program installation which would halt immediately after I started it with the error “Invalid Drive Letter M:\”. On my machine, the M drive is a mapped network drive which I have set as my “My Documents” location (so my important files are saved on our server which gets backed up nightly).

Apparently, moving your “My Documents” folder to a mapped network drive and Windows Installer 3.1 do not get along. The fix was to temporarily move my My Documents location back to a local drive (i.e. C:\Users\Profile\Documents), install the program and then move the location back to the network.

This change allowed me to install the program with no problems. Of course, this is an annoyance, but it’s something I can live with.

Clipmarks Plugin For Firefox

Have you ever visited a web page and found a certain part of the information useful, but the rest of it not really relevant to you? If so you have probably either bookmarked the page, just for the small portion, or done something else to help you remember the information. Instead consider making a “clipmark”.

With the Clipmark Firefox plugin you can, instead of bookmarking entire pages, clip and save portions of a web page. Their explaination puts it best:

With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether it’s a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page.

Clipmarks requires you to sign up for a free account and then all the subsequent clips you snag become available in a personal repository. These clips can be emailed, attached to blogs or save for searching later.

Beware Of The Bogus FTC Email

Marking Up Screenshots

If you are putting together a presentation or help documentation, it is very beneficial to be able to take screenshots of the application and mark them up to bring attention to certain areas. While there are a lot of commercial applications which will do this, if your needs are basic this tip might be of some use.

When I need to mark up screenshots, I use a combination of ScreenHunter, ZoomIt, and Paint.Net. Typically, my needs are extremely basic, so I will pull up the screen I need, press Ctrl+2 to invoke the ZoomIt draw function, “write” on the screen and then screenshot the result with ScreenHunter. This usually fits the bill perfectly.

However, if I need something a bit more polished looking, I will take the screenshot, open Paint.Net, create a new document (which defaults to the size of the screenshot automatically), paste in the screenshot and then use the Paint.Net tools to mark it up.

Again, there are several ways to prepare your screenshots, but this quick and dirty way works very well for me.

Changing The Active Connection Time Of Windows Network Shares

Many of you out there probably use your desktop as a “server” to share files, music, movies, etc. to other computers on your network. I’ve noticed in small offices this type of setup is common since they don’t require the services of a full server.

One problem you run into, however, is Windows desktop OS’s limit the maximum number of connections allowed at one time. While this limitation cannot be changed, you can change the time a connection remains “active” after no activity. The procedure simply involves changing a network setting per this Microsoft KB. Changing the value to a lower number than the default 15 minutes will allow you to get the most out of your connections for heavier use.

Backup Reminder Script For Linux

I know I am seemly always harping about backing up your data (which you should be doing!), so today I am going to pester Linux users out there.

I ran across a great article about creating a backup reminder script. The author uses this script on his laptop to remind him to back his data up to another drive. He goes into some detail about how to implement his script on your computer as well as links to other resources to help you develop your own backup script.

If this seems a little too advanced for you, try something like SBackup instead. SBackup is available in the Ubuntu Repositories if this is your OS of choice.

Looking For A Server? Try EBay

This week, we were looking to get another server here at work which we needed for a test environment as well as to handle our file sharing. We had been running all these needs off of a collection of retired and ”converted” desktop machines. While this works, it is obviously not an ideal solution.

So I started exploring a rack-mount server option to handle all these needs in a single place. Since we only use Dell servers, I checked out their website, but after you add the drives, memory, rails and OS, it quickly gets into the area of several thousands.

Obviously, we didn’t need anything cutting edge, so I checked out EBay. What a great alternative. There were boatloads of 2nd and 3rd generation Dell rack-mount servers available ultra cheap. I was able to pick up a server which included a copy of Windows Server 2003 OEM and rack-mount rails for under $500. I hopped over to NewEgg and ordered some additional drives and then over to Crucial to pick up some additional memory. All in all the server came out well under $1,000 for everything we needed.

While this server is by no means cutting edge, it gets the job we need done much better than the “collection” of desktop machines accumulating in our server room.

Email Important Information To Yourself

Windows Vista Activation Notice/Warning

One item I saw today which I wanted to pass along which may effect Windows Vista users who are tinkerers or are planning to upgrade their machine.

According to an article on APCMag.com, updating your hardware drivers can sometimes cause Vista to lose its activation status. As you may know, Windows Activation is directly related to Microsoft’s WPA, which attempts to flag any significant changes to hardware in order to detect piracy. Of course, this probably isn’t what Microsoft intended with WPA and according to the article, they are working to correct it.

Just something to keep in mind if you are looking to do some upgrades on your hardware.

Periodically Test Your Hard Drives

It is a very well known fact that your hard drive is the most likely device on your computer to fail. A hard drive’s life can last anywhere from several hours to several years, but it isn’t a matter of if it will crash, rather when.

One thing you can do to help detect if a drive is in good health is periodically testing it with the respective manufacturer’s diagnostic tools. These can be downloaded for free from each manufacturer’s website, or more conveniently in an all-in-one package inside the Ultimate Boot CD.

For the most part, pretty much all modern hard drives come equipped with SMART detection which basically is the drive alerting the system when something is wrong. While this is usually sufficient, it never hurts to forcefully test your entire drive for any indication of error, which is what the hard drive tools are designed to do.

Keep in mind, even hard drives in tip-top condition are subject to fail at any instant, so having your data backed up is very important.

How To Repair A Windows XP Installation

Occasionally your Windows XP installation can become completely hosed. Be it by spyware/viruses, “accidentally” deleting system files or messing with the registry, there are lots of things which can potentially go wrong.

In these cases it the fix might be as simple as a repair of your XP installation. If you have never done a repair, this might sound to difficult to do, but it really isn’t. With this guide to repairing a Windows XP installation, all the steps are laid out. Additionally, there are several clearly marked warnings to make sure you avoid any pitfalls.

If you are unsure of whether or not to repair your XP installation, make sure this is the appropriate step to take before you start. A good place to post questions to (of course) are the PC Mech Forums.

Note: before doing any major work on your OS install, make sure you have your important data backed up.

What If Google.com Optimized Itself For Google?

To get your Monday started off with a laugh, this is great parody on how Google.com would have to optimize their own page for high SEO (search engine optimization)… according to their own algorithm.

Like any good parody, the humorous is in the obvious and as they go through the steps of “optimizing” the Google home page, it starts to look suspiciously similar to many (many many many) other sites out there.

Web developers should get a good kick out of this one. Enjoy.

Performing A Clean Install Of Windows Vista

Most people will probably agree, the best way to install a new operating system which is replacing your current one is by formatting your hard drive and installing the new OS “clean”. While this process is very simple, it can be intimidating if you have never done it before.

If you are looking to move to Vista from an alternate OS, I would recommend a clean install. This article provides a very good step-by-step guide, complete with screenshots, to walk you through a clean Windows Vista installation.

Of course, before doing any formatting of your hard drive, make sure your data is backed up safely as once your hard drive is formatted, you cannot recover the it (easily at least).

Installing PHP On IIS7

Windows Vista (version depending) introduces the new Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version, 7. Much like IIS 6 introduced features and fixes over IIS 5, version 7 appears to continue this trend.

One thing PHP web developers using the Windows Vista OS will probably want to do is install PHP on IIS7. After following the steps in this article, this is a piece of cake. I am using Vista Business on my work machine and had no problems getting PHP 5.2.1 up and running on IIS7.

Additionally, the article addresses how to connect PHP to the “free version” of SQL 2005, SQL Express. While MySQL remains the more popular choice for PHP development, this is still good information to know if you develop exclusively for the Windows platform.

Deleting Files With Reserved Windows Names

If you ever run across a folder with a Windows reserved name, Windows Explorer will not allow you to delete it. This can be a huge annoyance as the folder exists, yet is “invisible” to folder manipulation commands.

If you have ever run a Windows based FTP server, this is a common problem as wanna-be “hackerz” will create folders with these reserved names and upload their crap in the embedded folders. This is usually a result of having an anonymous public FTP (which you really shouldn’t do).

In order to get rid of the folders with reserved Windows names, check out this Microsoft article. I have used this information to remove reserved name folders on both Windows Server 2000 and 2003 and it works like a champ. Just make sure you type the path correctly as the files the command deletes do not get placed in the recycle bin.

Running IE7 On Linux

For you web developers out there who prefer to do you development utilizing Linux (and their significantly better development tools) over Windows, one common problem is the inability to test your applications in Internet Explorer. It is well known IE has many “quirks” which deviate from W3C standards and without the IE7 browser itself it is hard to test.

Instead of keeping a separate Windows box for testing these applications, try this nifty method for getting IE 7 to run on Linux. Even better, this trick allows you to run both IE6 and IE7 concurrently so in certain cases it may be better than having a Windows box itself.

Note: Make sure you read the comments as there is some evolution of the functionality since this post was made.

Explanation Of WPA

With Windows Vista out shipping preinstalled on virtually all new PC’s, you might be wondering how your existing Windows XP license fits into the new machine in the event you decide to load it instead of Vista. Probably the biggest concern you have is the Windows Activation process, WPA.

This article gives a great explanation of how WPA works, both in terms of when you need to reactivate Windows and what information is sent to Microsoft. Included in the article is the details behind a common myth, that you can copy the WPA.dbl and WPA.bak files from an activated computer to a non-activated computer to circumvent the activation process.

Regardless, this is a great article to have bookmarked in the event you have any questions or doubts of how the WPA process works.

Viewing File Security The Easy Way

If you are trying to identify and lock down security holes you have in your file permissions, using the standard Windows interface can be daunting due to the fact that you can really only see one file/folder permission settings at a time. With the Microsoft tool, AccessEnum, you can view all permissions of both file and registry permissions in an easy to read multi-listing table format.

AccessEnum’s usage is pretty self-explanatory. You simply select a folder or registry key and are presented 4 columns which display the file as well as Windows accounts which have read, write and are denied access. This is a fast and easy way to make sure your most important data is secured.

This program does not have to be installed, so using it from your USB drive is ideal.

Dork Tower Comics

If you are looking for laugh of the “dork” variety, then be sure to check out the comic series, Dork Tower. This comic strip takes on such subjects as computer gaming, role playing games, collecting and many others which might hit close to home.

While new strips are not posted daily, there is an extensive archive collection available so you can pretty much get your fill whenever you like. So the next time you are in the mood, check out Dork Tower.

Avoid Using A Magnetized Screwdriver

This is tip which should really be applied when working on any electronic device. Generally, it is very bad to expose electronic magnetized data storage (such as hard drives, flash RAM, etc.) to any electromagnetic field.

While the magnetic power of a magnetized screwdriver is, overall, pretty weak it is best to avoid using one altogether when working on your computer. However, if you have no other option, just be extra cautious.

Print Web Pages To Fit In IE7

Outlook New Mail Desktop Alert

A rather handy feature available in Outlook is the New Mail Desktop Alert. When enabled and you receive a new message, a semi-transparent notification appears in the bottom right corner of your desktop which shows you the sender and subject of the new message. Additionally, you can click on the notification to open the full message.

I have found this option most handy when I am working on something which requires full use of both of my monitors. This way when I get a new email message, I don’t have to restore Outlook to see if it is something I need to address. If it is important, I click on the notification and respond, however if it can wait, I just let the notification go away on its own and continue working.

You can enable or disable this function by right clicking on the Outlook icon in your system tray and selecting the “Show New Mail Desktop Alert” option. This option is available in Outlook 2003/2007, but I am not sure about previous versions.

Making Vista Look Like XP

If you are new user to Windows Vista and are wanting to go back to the timeless Windows 98/2000 look and feel, there are a few simple changes you need to make.

Rather than list them all here. This CNet video walks you through the changes you can make on Vista to make it look like XP. This video is very short (about 2:30), so the changes are very quick and easy.

Creating Icons Using Paint.NET

Not too long ago I wrote about my personal favorite graphics editing program, Paint.NET. While it does everything I need out of the box, I found it would not allow me to save icon (.ico) files.

With a quick Google search, I had the solution. This plugin for Paint.NET allows you to save your graphic files in both .ico and .cur (cursor) format. Just follow the instructions in the post and it works like a champ.

Computer Security Checklist

If you are wanting to do an “audit” of your computer security, you probably do the obvious which includes scan for mal-ware, Windows update, check your firewall, etc., but if you really want to get down and dirty, there is a lot more you can do.

This security checklist article gives a very good starting point. It is comprehensive and covers all aspects of home security.

This article is 3 years old, so some of the information may be outdated, however the checklist items remain good.

Alternate File Compression Clients

If you are still using the built in Windows zip utility are are tired of its overall poor performance (both speed and compression ratio-wise), consider using much more fully featured alternative.

The first one which comes to mind is probably WinZip. While this works very well, few people actually register it and continue to live with the very annoying nag and delay screens.

Instead, try a free tool. One I have written about in the past is the excellent 7-Zip program, but another fully featured free tool you might want to give a look is IZArc. IZArc supports virtually all file formats and offers boatloads of features. Here are a few of the more popular ones:

• Full Drag & Drop support
• CD/DVD Images support (ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG, IMG, C2D, PDI, CDI)
• Integrating in Windows Explorer context menu
• Automatic installation of most software distributed in archive files
• Virus scanning support

So ditch the Windows tool and go with something much better and faster, for free.

Microsoft Office Versus OpenOffice

Blogs Are Not Necessarily Credible Sources

As the modern saying goes “I read it on the Internet, so it must be true”. Of course we all know this isn’t true, however with the recent fad of everyone having a blog site now, it is important to remember this.

Blogs are intended to both spread facts and opinions, however most of the time the later is what is written. This tip is just a reminder that what you read on a blog site is not necessarily true. In other words, I wouldn’t recommend using unconfirmed resources on an official research or similar projects. This includes blogs, wikis (i.e. Wikipedia), forums, etc.

This site is not an exception to the rule either. While I do my best to make sure everything I post is true, I do interject my opinion sometimes as well as make mistakes.

By no means am I saying all blog (et. al.) sites are not credible, but rather you should take most with a grain of salt.

Sending Large Files Over The Internet

Say goodbye to bounced emails, clogged inboxes, FTP servers and overnight courier services to deliver CDs and DVDs. YouSendIt.com lets you send, track and receive files electronically.

This free service for files under 100MB is quite simple to use and is accessible right from the homepage with no need to register in order send a file under 20 MB. If you register and opt for a free Lite Account, you could send files up to 100 MB with a 1 GB monthly download limit. Here are the basic steps:

1. To send a file, enter the recipient email addresses and an optional message.
2. Attach your file and click “Send It”.
3. Your recipients receive an email that lets them immediately click and download the file.

If you want to send multiple files up to 2GB each take advantage of several other features such as ad-free usage, there are several pay-per-use accounts available.

Analysing Hardware

From time to time it is good practice to analyse your hardware, just to see if it’s in optimal condition and is not suffering through any problems. However, it’s a routine operation that demands some effort and many times, we become too lazy to use the Device Manager or worse, we don’t have a tool at hand.

Windows offers a simple solution. Go to “Start” and click on “Run” and type “winmsd” to access a program. This gives you basic information regarding the processor type, BIOS version and boot device. It also displays the IRQs and the possible I/O conflicts and Internet Settings. This way, many computer-related problems can be taken care of with just the click of a mouse.

Note: This tip is intended for you “tweakers” out there. If you are not comfortable making hardware changes, don’t if everything is working.

Getting Rid Of DVD Background Noises

If you are bugged by the constant background noises whenever you are accessing a DVD on your computer, you don’t have to put up with the irritant anymore.

Most of the time, noise occurs when the audio output of your DVD is connected directly to the line-in of the sound card. It could be that the sound port connection is interfering with the default coupling through the IDE cable. This leads to feedback of the audio signal at the sound card output. To avoid this interference of the audio signal, simply remove the audio connector inside the case (the one between the burner and the sound card). This will take care of the noise and you can resume your work without a bother.

Base Conversion Calculator

Have you ever wanted to learn to count in binary or octal? Probably not, but if you ever have the need to convert one number to a different base, then check out this online number base converter.

Usage is very self explanatory. Here are some common bases with respect to computer usage:

• Binary = Base 2
• Octal = Base 8
• Decimal = Base 10
• Hexadecimal (Hex) = Base 16

Password Protect Your Wireless Router

A very common, and bad, practice people have is setting up and using their wireless router with no password on it. This is very dangerous because anyone in range of your router could connect to and use any shared resources you have such as printers and files.

While you could put a password or security on each of the individual resources, it makes much more sense to password protect connection to your router. This article on PC Mech gives some very good information on what should be done to implement security on your wireless router.

If you do not want to put a password on your router, at the very least you should limit the number of IP’s assigned by your router to match the number of machines you have in your house. This way the router will not have any room to assign connection to a new device.

Windows Screen Presentation Utility

If you ever do presentations or demos where you are displaying your screen to others, a really useful feature is the ability to mark up or write directly on your screen to draw attention to certain areas. While a lot of commercial programs offer this functionality, a lightweight alternative which does basically the same thing is ZoomIt.

ZoomIt is a free utility which allows you to capture an image of your screen (via customizable hot-keys) and in real time, draw, type or zoom directly on the captured screen image. The really handy part is the capture process is seamless as no external program is opened. By pressing ESC you “unfreeze” the screen and all the markup disappears. This is extremely handy for doing presentations, especially if you use a tablet PC.

ZoomIt also offers a timer function where your computer can have a countdown. This would be useful if you wanted to do a presentation with interactive user exercises.

Either way, this is an extremely handy utility which doesn’t even need to be installed to run. Just double click it and go.

Simple DVD Authoring In Windows

Today’s post is for Windows users looking to perform some DVD authoring. While there are many tools out there which handle this task (feel free to chime in on the comments), on free tool you might want to try is DVD Flick.

This open source tool aims to handle the majority of functions you might want to do when creating a DVD. From their website:

DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks as well as subtitles of your choice.

DVD Flick has an impressive list of supported formats and gives a pretty good usage guide to get you started. On top of that, there is a forum available to answer any questions you might have.

While I have not personally tried DVD Flick, I have definitely bookmarked it to try in the future.

Full Scale DVD Authoring Using Linux

If you are looking to get into DVD authoring and are not prepared to drop hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars on software, looking to freely available Linux tools is worth your time.

If you don’t know where to start, this article on Linux.com: A Quick Guide To DVD Authoring will get you started. It gives a great overview of the programs you can use for what, including a “flow chart” of each of the steps of DVD authoring as well as your software choices.

Keep in mind all the software listed here is open source and freely available, so odds are it will not have the polish and help documentation many commercial packages offer. Either way, if you are looking to get started, this is a great place to start.

Print In Gray Scale To Save Your Color Ink

Printer ink is expensive, especially color ink. On most printer models you do not buy a single ink cartridge for color, rather three (cyan, magenta and yellow). More so, these color cartridges typically do not hold as much ink as their black counterparts.

So when it comes to printing, print what you can using only black ink (i.e. in gray scale). You can usually find this setting in the print dialog by clicking the properties button. Depending on your printer model, there is typically a check box on the resulting dialog to indicate you want to print in gray scale. You can also make this the default setting by going to your printer setup in Windows, viewing the properties and checking the box there. This saves the setting for future use so you don’t have to change it every time.

This is perfect to use when printing web pages, text documents, maps, etc. Save your color ink for when you want to print your pictures.

An Alternate All In One Media Player

If you are a Windows Media Player (WMP), Winamp, iTunes or some other variant of media player user looking for a great alternative, check out VLC.

VLC is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.) media player which can play the following formats, among others, right out of the box:

• MPEG-1
• MPEG-2
• MPEG-4
• DivX
• mp3
• Ogg Vorbis
• DVD
• VCD
• Various streaming protocols

Best of all, it is totally free. Give VLC a shot.

Be Wary Of Having Trash Next To Your Computer

For the most part, this tip should be a no-brainer, but I have noticed this a few times in the past so I think it is worthy of having a tip posted.

Be careful of keeping trash next to your computer. Not because it is a fire hazard or will hurt your machine, more for the fact that eventually you might be tempted to start throwing food away in it. Putting paper plates, paper towels, empty chip bags, apple cores (you get the idea) next to your computer, which blows out heat, can cause the smell of rotten food to quickly spread around your computer area. Worse yet, the heat produced by your computer could cause the food to rot faster and make the smell worse. Not to mention the bugs it will attract.

Keeping a trash can next to your computer if fine, just make sure you don’t throw perishables away in it! Again, this should be a no-brainer, but regardless, think twice before you throw away or leave food next to your computer.

Graphing Calculator For Windows XP

The calculator which ships with Windows is very useful for performing basic arithmetic and low-level scientific functions, however if you are looking for a more powerful calculator, check out Microsoft’s Power Calculator.

This calculator replacement offers advanced functionality such as graphing, variable storage and full equation writing. If you ever used a TI-8x calculator, the functions of the Power Calculator are similar (although not nearly as fully featured) with respect to the mathematical operations.

This tool is a free download, so if you think it will be useful to you give it a try.

Star Wars Gangsta Rap

Back to the lighter side of things, I thought I would pass along a more humorous compliment to the Star Wars ASCIImation I posted about a couple of weeks ago, Star Wars Gangsta Rap. This flash video has actually been around for a while so you may have seen it already, although within the past year a new “special edition” version was released.

These 3 minute music videos are definitely worth a look whether you are a Star Wars buff or not.

• Original Version
• Special Edition Remake

Enjoy.

Using Invert Selection To Save Time

A nice feature when selecting or manipulating files which compliments the Select all function is the Invert Selection option. If you have never used it, this does exactly what it sounds like: unselects all previously selected files and selects all previously unselected files.

While I don’t use it all that often, I started recently taking advantage while testing some applications which produce log files. I select all the log files in a certain directory and view contents. After running the program again I simply invert the selection and open all the now selected log files. If I find the new log files addressed errors in my old files, I invert the selection again (selecting the previous files), and delete them.

While this situation isn’t something I run into every day (thankfully), it did help me realize how useful this function can be in certain situations.

Mass Image Resize Tool

If you have a lot of images you need to resize and don’t want to go through the hassle of having to open each in your graphics program to resize and then save, then check out this image resize tool from Microsoft.

This tool allows you to resize any number of selected images by simply right clicking on them. Keep in mind if you are resizing to a specific size you will want to make sure all the selected images are roughly the same size, otherwise they could turn out disproportionate. If you have a lot of images you are having to get “web ready”, this tool can be a huge time saver.

Note: This application is only listed as being supported on Windows XP so it may or may not work if you have a different version of Windows.

IE7 Protected Mode Explained

A new feature to Windows Vista is Protected Mode for Internet Explorer 7. This functionality leverages the security model introduced with Vista’s UAC to add a layer of protection to Internet Explorer.

This quote from Microsoft’s website gives a very good overview:

In Protected Mode, Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista cannot modify user or system files and settings without user consent. Protected Mode requires the user to confirm any activity that tries to put something on your machine or start another program. By ensuring the user consents to these kinds of actions, the likelihood of automated and/or unwanted software installation is reduced. This feature also makes you aware of what a website is trying to do, giving you a chance to stop it and take time to double check the trustworthiness of the website.

Having used Vista and IE7 for the past several months, this basically means you will get a prompt whenever (among others):

• An ActiveX control tries to either save a file or modify a system setting.
• An external program tries to access Internet Explorer content. I get this when I view the source of a web page using Notepad++.

If you are looking for more technical information about IE7’s Protected Mode, Microsoft has a very informative blog post on their site which gives more details.

While I wouldn’t recommend it, you can disable (and re-enable) this setting by double clicking on the Protected Mode status bar in the bottom of IE7 and selecting the option to Enable Protected Mode as needed.

Need More USB Ports?

Windows Vista UAC Explained

Perhaps the most notable change from Windows XP to Vista is the addition of the UAC (User Account Control) which is the cause of the security dialogs prompting for permission to perform system actions. Considering this is just a tip, I am going to be brief in my explanation and defer to Microsoft for the details.

First off, UAC is a good thing. While some ”experts” and anti-Vista people are quick to point out you get prompted for virtually anything you do, this simply is not true. I’ve been running Vista for about 3 months now with UAC enabled and it is no hindrance at all. Now that I have my system set up, I rarely see a UAC prompt.

Typically you are prompted when you do one of the following:

• Install a program or Active X control.
• Try to manipulate files and folders in system directories (C:,  \Windows, \Program Files, etc.).
• Modify a system settings (i.e. anything in the control panel).
• Modify system services or drivers (i.e. anything in Computer Management).

I am in no way trying to start a debate here, just pointing out what I have noticed. If you do not want the UAC notifications, you can easily disable them. 

This is virtually the exact way Linux and Mac have worked for years. Since under the 2000/XP model, practically every user has administrative rights on the machine, this made it easy for viruses and spyware to install and hide itself… because it would have the same rights on the machine as the user. Even worse, due to the nature of malware it all happens behind the scenes, making it very hard to combat.

Microsoft recently published a fantastic explanation about what UAC is and is not on their web site which I would recommend you read. I will end this tip with a quote from the article:

In its current form, UAC will not stop really good attackers, or ones who have the help of really good attackers. If the bad guys can’t think of any other way to defeat UAC, they will almost certainly resort to asking the user to do it for them. Given the choice of dancing pigs and security, we know from experience that the dancing pigs win every time. Users have learned to dismiss dialogs, and so they will until we manage to teach them otherwise. This results from many contributing factors, including the fact that there are too many warning dialogs, that the messages in them are useless, and that many of the manuals for whatever devices users buy include a note to “please click yes to the security warning dialog to dismiss it.

UAC does not provide foolproof security. In fact, it makes the good old local privilege elevation attack interesting again. This is a class of attack that has largely been discounted because, on Windows, nearly everyone was an admin anyway so elevating to some other admin was quite pointless. That said, UAC definitely changes the nature of such attacks and transforms the rules of the game to be much more like what prevailed on UNIX for more than 20 years.

Run Dialog Shortcuts

If you utilize the handy Run dialog (Start > Run) often, here are a couple of shortcuts you can take advantage of for easier access to it.

If you prefer hot keys, you can easily access it by using the key combination: Windows Key + R, or you can create a shortcut on your desktop by doing the following:

1. Click the Start Menu.
2. Click and drag the Run option to your desktop. A shortcut will be created.
3. Rename the newly created shortcut to whatever you like.
4. Optionally you can assign another hot key (like an F button) in the properties of the shortcut.

Free Office Suite For Mac Users

Today represents our first tip specifically for Mac users.

If you are looking for an office suite designed specifically for Mac… which is free, then give NeoOffice a look. NeoOffice is built off the ever popular OpenOffice platform, but extends the functionality to familiar Mac paradigm. NeoOffice offers all the same features as OpenOffice, which in turn is comparable with an average user’s use of Microsoft Office. You can read more about the extended Mac features listed on their page.

Considering the price (free), you have nothing to lose by giving NeoOffice a try.

Creating PNG With A Transparent Background

At some point or another, every web developer (or just an average Joe making a web page) needs to create a graphic with a transparent background. This can be done by utilizing either the dated GIF format or the much preferred PNG option. While there are many graphic tools available which can do this, I’m going to reference my personal favorite, Paint.NET.

This post on Paint.NET’s forum shows exactly how to remove the (usually white) background on images. Basically you utilize the magic wand tool by clicking on the background and then pressing the delete key. Repeat as needed if there are multiple sections where the background appears. Once all the background sections are removed, save the graphic in PNG format.

Of the many programs I have worked with, Paint.NET is by far the easiest for doing this.

Create Virtual Desktops In Windows XP

If you have ever used Linux, one of the most useful features of the standard interfaces is the ability to have multiple desktops you can switch between (i.e. virtual desktops). This makes multitasking easier as, for example, you can have all your Internet applications open on one desktop, your music library open on another and your word processor / spreadsheet on another desktop.

With this Microsoft utility for Windows XP, you can now have this same feature for your Windows desktop. Give it a shot as it really is a nice way to keep your “relevant” programs grouped together when you are multitasking.

Microsoft XPS Format

Everyone knows about the ever popular and compatible PDF format. Microsoft is now getting into the game by launching (actually it has been around a while) the “competing” XPS format. This format will basically work the way PDF does, by using a special printer to produce the output. This new format is superior to PDF when the printer takes advantage of the extended XPS features. You can read about the details on this informative article on Tech Republic.

The point of this tip is to get you ready with the XPS viewer in case someone sends you a document in this format. You can download everything you need here. This link includes everything you need to both read and write to XPS format.

While this format isn’t going to catch on overnight, it is something to consider as a future possibility.