Jan 30, 2009

Tabs & "UP" button For Windows Vista Explorer

If are used to the Up button in Windows XP and want to get that button in Windows Vista there is no option in Vista to get it. You need to install a third party software. The software is called QTTabBar. Download QTTabBar from the link. After downloading follow the steps below to get the "UP" as in XP as well as tabs in windows explorer like Firefox if you want.

--- Right click on the QTTabBar.exe file and select Run as Administartor. Then Install the software as usual by clicking next.

--- Now log off or kill explorer and restart it from Task Manager --> New Task by typing explorer in the new task box and hitting enter.

--- Now open My Computer and press the Alt key or Click on Organise --> Layout --> Menu Bar to make the Menu Bar visible.

--- Now from the menu bar select View --> Toolbars and then select QT Tab Bar and QT Tab Standard Buttons.

--- Now both of them are active and you will see something like this.

--- Now right click on double arrow as shown in the above image and Click customize

--- Select the Up one level option from the left pane and press the add button on the right to add it to your menu bar. As shown below. Remove any options you don't want from right side.

--- Don't forget to untick the option Lock toolbar so that you can move the toolbar anywhere you want on the menu bar.

--- This is how it will look

--- To open folder in tabs just middle click on the folder you want to open in a new tab.

--- Don't forget to check the Options of QTTabBar by right clicking in the Tab area and selecting Options.

Problems:

Q: After uninstalling QTTabBar, the menu toolabar doesn't go away and no option works for it.

A: Before you uninstall QTTabBar right click on the menu bar and deselct both QT Tab Bar and QT Tab Standard Buttons. Then uninstall the application.

OR
(This option is given on QTTabBar Forums)

You have to Edit the registry. Go to registry editor by typing regedit in start menu search box and hit enter. Then find this key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\ShellBrowser

In the right pane look for the entry ITBar7Layout and delete it. Don't worry it will be recreated by windows. Log Off or restart windows.

Increase Performance by Modifying Indexing Options

Windows Vista uses the Indexing service to make the searches faster. These search boxes are present all over the Vista interface. Indexing all the locations of your hard disk makes the searches faster but at the same time consumes lot of resources of your system. All the user profile folders, start menu and some other offline files will be indexed by windows vista by default. This will put load on your PC but you get better searches. But I would recommend to disable the Indexing service as it will boost your performance and keep the indexing on for only start menu. This will reduce the load on windows but it will also slow down your searches. This is a small compensation for getting better performance out of your system. Now to edit the Indexing Options..

--- Go to Start Menu and type Indexing Options in the search box. And press Enter.

--- A dialog box with the Indexing Options like below will open up.


--- Now click on the Modify button.

--- Next select or deselect the locations you want to add or remove from the Indexing. To do this select the location in bottom pane and you will get the option of selecting the folders in that specific location in the upper pane. Like this

--- Once finished Click OK. You can also use the Show all locations button shown in above image to select or deselect the folders.

--- Close the Indexing Options.

That's it.

Jan 14, 2009

How To Enter Windows XP Recovery Console

In Windows XP many a times some system files get corrupted, deleted or damaged for a number of reasons. More often you only see the solution to be re-installation of Windows XP.

Before reinstall you can try to restore the damaged files using the recovery console of Windows XP. Many people don't know how to get to the recovery console to recover the files.

Here is how it should be done.
You need the Bootable Windows XP CD.

--- Insert the Windows XP CD in drive and restart your PC. During boot you will be asked to press any key to boot from CD. If you don't press any key your system will boot normally from hard disk. If your system does not boot from CD Check How to make your CD/DVD drive as the first boot device.

--- After this don't press any key. Windows will load some files so that you can reinstall or go to the recovery console.

---When you reach the setup screen press you can see you have to press R key to go to recovery console.

--- Once you press the R key windows will start to load recovery console but it will need to know which Windows installation you want to change. Most of us usually have only one Windows installation so the option is clear. Enter 1 and press Enter.


--- Now the recovery console will ask for the Administrator Password. Enter it and press enter. If you don't have a password then just press Enter.

--- The recovery console is now loaded and you will see a command prompt. Do the necessary changes or copy the corrupted files and overwrite them.

--- After all the changes are done remove the Windows XP CD and type Exit to restart the computer.

Jan 13, 2009

Booting from CD/DVD drive

To install any operating system or to boot your system from a live CD/DVD of linux you will need to set CD/DVD drive as the first boot device.

This will be the default option of all the systems but somehow if it isn't then you can easily set that option.

--- Start your PC and during the startup press the key shown on the screen to enter setup. Most commonly used key is Delete key.

--- Once the setup that is the BIOS is loaded. Look for the boot options.

--- In boot options look for the boot device priority.

--- Enter boot device priority and select the first boot device and hit Enter to change the it.

--- Select your Optical drive that is your CD/DVD drive as the first boot device and set the Second boot device as your hard disk.

--- Save the changes and exit BIOS.

Now whenever you want to boot from the Optical drive just insert the bootable CD/DVD in your drive and start your PC.

Jan 12, 2009

Disable Low Disk Space Check in Windows Vista

Note: This method also works for Windows XP

When your hard disk runs out of free space windows Vista will start to give you a warning about low disk space. In the beginning its useful to know that you have run out of space. But Windows continues to give warning until you free up some space. This gets irritating and you don't have any setting to stop this.

Vista constantly checks the drives for the low disk space which uses resources and slows down the system.

Follow these easy steps to disable this annoying warning message

--- Go to registry by typing regedit in run box. OR Type regedit in start menu search box and hit Enter.

---Then locate this key in the left pane
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

--- Under policies look for the sub key named Explorer if its not present you have to create the key. To create the key right click on Policies and select New Key. A new key named New Key #1 will be created below Policies. Name that key as Explorer.

--- Now select the Explorer key and in the right pane right click and select New --> DWORD(32-bit) Value and name it NoLowDiskSpaceChecks--- Now to edit its value double click on it and enter value '1' instead of '0' in the value data field. Click OK.--- This is how it should look

--- Close the registry.

No more annoying warning messages for Low disk Space.

To Re-enable the warning messages replace '1' with '0' or delete the DWORD value created.

Note: In XP these entries might be present already you just need to edit the value to from '0' to '1'

Jan 10, 2009

Change Amount of Space Used for System Restore in Vista

If you have system restore enabled in Windows Vista, after a few weeks the amount of space used by Vista for system restore will be growing in GB's. You don't have any option in Vista that allows you to limit the amount of space used by Vista for System Restore. In Windows XP you had the option to set the amount of hard disk space used for system restore by just adjusting a slider provided but no such luck in vista.

Fortunately there is a option which we can use to set the disk space for system restore in Vista. You have to edit this option from command line. Here is how you do it.

--- Go to start menu and type cmd in the search box. When it shows up in top box right click on it and select Run as Administrator.
--- Windows has a service called Volume Shadow Copy which holds the settings for the storage space used. You can see the options that can be used by typing vssadmin /? in the command prompt. This is how it looks.--- Now to see the amount of space used by system restore and Maximum allowed space type this command. vssadmin list shadowstorage. You will see something like this.
--- Now the option that we are going to use to change the space used for system restore is Resize ShadowStorage. To see what options it gives type this command. vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage.

You will be shown a screen where you can see what option you can use. Here you will be told that MaxSize should be atleast 300MB. You can use suffixes KB (kilobytes), MB (megabytes) and so on like GB, TB, PB and EB. If nothing is specified then the default suffix will be bytes.

--- Now to change the amount of space used by Windows Vista for system restore we have to use this command
vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=ForVolumeSpec /On=OnVolumeSpec /MaxSize=MaxSizeSpec

So how to use this command?

Say you want to set the maximum amount of storage of 2GB that system restore uses for system restore points created for C drive and you want to store them in C drive only. You use the command like this

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=2GB

This will allow only 2GB of space to system restore in C drive.

--- You will get a confirmation of the operation being successfully completed.The amount of space allocated for system restore in your Windows Vista has been resized to your liking.

Jan 8, 2009

Add Digg Button To Blogger Posts

All of us know about the digg.com this is a site which allows us to submit stories from our blogs, websites so that people interested in them can share that information with other people by digging that story. But for digging the articles we need to have the feature integrate the feature in our blog or site.

Adding the digg function in blogger is easy. You have to register an account if you want to digg your stories.

You need to edit the template. Here is how to do it.

--- Sign in to your blogger account and go to Layout page.

--- Click on Edit HTML to edit your template code.

--- Now look for this code. Use your browsers search feature to find it. If you can't find it put tick mark for Expand Widget Templates and search again.


<p><data:post.body/></p>


--- Once you find the code select it and replace it with the following code.


<p>
<!-- DIGG -->
<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
digg_url = '<data:post.url/>';
</script>
<script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</div>
<data:post.body/>
</p>


--- Above code will add a digg button as shown on this blog.

--- Preview the template and if everything looks good save the template.

Using Vista System Restore Point

If you don't know how to create a system restore point then click on the link to see how it works. Now that you know how to create the restore we can move on to restoring your system using the created restore point.

Suppose you install a new driver or a trial application for testing and your system becomes unstable. The first thing you should do is uninstall that driver or the application. But sometimes this option doesn't give the expected results and your system will still be unstable.
Your next step should be to restore your system to a state before installation of the driver or application. Windows might have created a system restore point before starting the actual installation process. Or if you have created a restore point manually before installing then here is how to use it.

--- Right click on My Computer and select properties. You will be taken to system information screen.
--- Now in the left pane click on System protection. You will see this screen.
--- Now click on the System Restore button shown in the above image. You will get Restore system files and setting dialog box. Click next on that screen.
OR Directly you can go to Start Menu --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools And select System restore.
OR you can search for system restore in start menu search box and click on system restore.

--- In the next screen you will asked to select the restore point. Select the required restore point and click next.
--- In next screen confirm your selection and click on Finish button. You will be shown a warning message saying you cannot interrupt the process. click yes to confirm the operation.
--- You will be logged off and system restore operation will start. After the operation completes. You will shown a confirmation of successful operation. Click OK. and Start using your restored PC.

Create System Restore Point in Windows Vista

In previous post you read how to create system restore points in Windows XP and how to restore your system a previous state using the created restore point. Today we will see how to create a restore point and restore your system using System Restore in Windows Vista.

Windows Vista creates these system restore points automatically while installing new software or updating drivers as a precaution. So that you can have a working system if something goes wrong. You can create a system restore point manually in Vista.

Creating the Restore Point

--- Go to Control Panel --> System and Maintenance --> Backup and Restore Center OR you can search for backup in Vista start menu OR you can right click on My Computer and select properties .

--- If you are in the Backup and restore screen then in the left side pane click on Create a restore point or change setting. And if you used right click on My Computer then in the left pane select System Protection. You will see this screen.

--- Now click on the create button. A new dialog box Create restore point will appear.

Give a appropriate description and Click Create.

--- The system will create the restore point and you will get a confirmation about the successful creation of the restore point.

Next time we will see how to restore your system to a previous working state using the created System restore point.

Jan 7, 2009

Using System Resotre in Windows XP

System restore is a feature of windows which allows you to take your system back to a state to an earlier date. That is it restores your system to a state where everything was working correctly. You can use system restore feature if something goes wrong while you try to install new software or update drivers or simply because your system became unstable after some changes you don't remember doing. System Restore allows you to undo all these changes.

System restore creates snapshots of your system called system restore points. Windows creates these restore points automatically whenever a major event takes place like installing new software or drivers.

You can return to a previous working state of your computer without loosing any document files, emails & Internet explorer favorites. And you will not loose files in My Documents other windows default folders.

Windows allows you to create System restore points manually. So you can create a system restore point when everything in your system is working fine.

Creating a system restore point

--- Go to the start menu --> Control panel

--- Select performance and maintenance and then click on System. If you are using the classic view in control panel then you will see the system option directly in control panel. In the system restore tab check if it is enabled if not click on setting and place a check mark on the drive you want to enable the system restore.

--- If it is already enabled then go to Start Menu --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools. Then click on system restore.

--- Now on the Welcome page that appears, select create a restore point.

--- When the create a restore point page appears enter a description you can remember like driver update or software install.

--- Now click create on the bottom of the page. The restore point will be created and you will be shown a successfully created confirmation page.

Restore Computer to Working State Using the Created System Restore Point

You have created a system restore point previously. Now you want to restore your system using them. Follow these simple steps.

--- G0 to Start Menu --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools.
Then click on system restore.

--- Again you will see the welcome screen. But this time you have to choose Restore My computer to an earlier time. And click next.

--- Now you will be asked to select a restore point. Select the one you want and click next. Just confirm that you have selected the correct restore point.

--- Close all the running programs and click next. Your computer will automatically restart. After the reboot a restoration complete page will be shown.

Your system will be free from any problems you were having. If you are still experiencing the problem then you can select a different restore point.

Jan 5, 2009

Increase Internet Browsing Speed

Domain Name System (DNS) is a database system that translates a computer's domain name into an IP address. It is easier for us to remember the domain name than the IP address for that site. Therefore this job of translating the site name to IP address is done by the DNS database.

Whenever you enter the site name like www.sitename.com, the browser will go to the site but it will look for a number like this 192.128.18.9. It is faster to look for the number. But every time your browser will look for the DNS address on the net then take you to that site. This searching for the DNS address will take longer time for the site to load. Therefore your computer saves this information in the DNS cache and it will search for this information when you enter a site name which will improve your browsing speed.

You can increase this cache size in Windows to acquire more addresses .You have to add some registry entries for this tip. Here is how

--- Type regedit in the Run dialog box to go to the registry.

---Then look for the key


--- In the right pane look for the following entries. If they are not present then create them by right clicking in the blank area in the right pane and selecting New --> DWORD value.

Now create these entries and change their values by double clicking on them and enter the given values.

CacheHashTableBucketSize and give a value of 00000001
CacheHashTableSize with a value of 00000180
MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit give the value 0000fa00
MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit with the value 0000012d

You are done. Now restart your system for the changes to take effect.

Jan 4, 2009

Faster Windows XP Shutdown

Windows will take some time while shutting down to close all the applications running in the background. But if you want to make the shutdown process faster then you should reduce the time it takes to close all those applications.

There are many tricks that can be applied to make Windows XP shutdown faster. Follow these steps.

Kill tasks automatically at shutdown
If you have applications running in your system then, while shutting down windows will ask you if you want to end the process. It will wait for some time before you select to end the task. This trick will automatically end that task without you having to confirm it. Here is what you do.

--- Go to registry by typing regedit in the run dialog box.

--- Then look for this key


--- Now in the right pane look for the entry AutoEndTasks and double click on it and set the value to 1.

Reduce time taken to kill open applications
When you shutdown windows, it will wait for some time before it starts closing the open applications. In this trick you will reduce that time. Her how you do it,

--- Again go to registry by typing regedit in run box.

--- Now navigate to the key


--- In the right pane look for the entry WaitToKillAppTimeout and change the value to something like 1000.

--- Now in the same place look for the entry HungAppTimeout and double click on it and set the value to 1000. This entry is the time for which windows will wait before a hung application is closed for shutdown.

You need to change these value which are also present at this location



And set the value of WaitToKillAppTimeout and HungAppTimeout to 1000 as before.

Reduce the wait time for closing services
This trick is similar to the one I gave in the earlier post about faster Vista shutdown.So follow the same procedure as given in that post. Only difference is that you are using Windows XP instead of Windows Vista.

Note: If any of the entries given in the above tricks don't exist then create them in the specified locations.

Jan 3, 2009

Faster Vista Shutdown

When you shutdown your computer, Windows Vista shuts down all the services. As with all the Windows operating systems Vista also has a predefined time for which it will wait before shutting down everything. If you shutdown your computer and wait to turn off the power then you will be waiting for a long time. Windows Vista waits for arond 20 seconds for all the services to shut down. But you can change this time so that it shuts down quickly.

The default value is set to 20 seconds by Microsoft for normal users so that it works for all the type of systems. But if you are not the normal type of user then you are at the right place.

For this operation of faster Vista shutdown you need to edit the registry. If you modify the setting incorrectly you may prevent your system from booting. So be careful and backup the registry.

Okay now on to the actual editing. There will be only one setting that needs to be changed.

--- Go to registry editor by typing regedit in the start menu search box and hit enter. If UAC is enabled you will be asked to allow this operation.

--- Once in the registry editor look for his key in the left pane and click on it



--- Now in the right pane look for the entry named WaitToKillServiceTimeout.


--- You will see that default value is set to 20000 which is equivalent to 20 seconds. You need to edit this value.

--- To edit this value double click on that entry and enter a value that you want. Remember for 3 seconds you have to enter the value as 3000. But read below before you set it.

Now what is a good value to enter in this setting. I searched for this on many sites and found that a value of 3 to 5 seconds that is 3000 to 5000 works out to be a good one. But if you change it to very low like say 1 second then you may not be able to boot in to your system the next time you boot. Never use a value that low and don't ever enter '0' Zero. This will prevent Windows to shutdown the services properly some of which are very important which save settings at shutdown. So keep this in mind.

A restart will be necessary for this change to take effect. Now enjoy the faster shutdown times. Look for faster shutdown options for windows XP in the next post.

Jan 2, 2009

Copy a Path to Clipboard Instantly

When you are having a folder or file that is do far into a folder tree and you want its path without you having to type it, you know what to do. You go to the folder you want the path to then you copy the path from the address bar. Then you have to type the file name you want to include. Because the entire path with file name will not be available in explorer address bar. But if you are using Vista then you don't have to do it anymore. All that needs to be done is hold the Shift key while you right click on the folder or file. And select the new command called Copy as Path. As shown below When you click on it the path will be copied to the clipboard. Now you can paste it anywhere you want.

Jan 1, 2009

Launch Applications Using Run Command

Windows allows you to open applications using the Run command. You need to just type the name of the application in the Run dialog box to open it. But all the applications you install cannot be started this way. But using the run command to open applications is helpful or you can say less time consuming then to go to that program to start it.

There is way to start any application you want using the run command. You just need add some entries to windows registry to get this working. But first backup you registry before changing anything.

Now to get the application you want to open using the run windows follow the instructions below.

--- Open the registry by typing regedit in the Run command box.

--- Then find the key


--- You will see many entries under the App paths key. These are the programs you can launch using the run command. Like you will see a entry called IEXPLORE.EXE, this is the entry which lets you open Internet Explorer by typing iexplore in the run box.

--- Now you want to create a entry for your software or application the same way then follow the steps.

--- Right click on the App path key found at the above given location and Create a new key


--- Now name the key anything you want. Remember this is the name you will be typing in the Run box to open your application. So use a name that is similar to the application you are going to use. For example I want to use it to create a entry for my Foobar player then I will name it something like Foo or Foobar. Don't forget to add the .exe extension to the name, otherwise it will not work. It should look something like this.

--- Now click on the entry you just created. In the right pane you will see a string value named default. Double click on the default value and enter the location of the application file in the value data field i.e. the exe file used to start the application. For example in my case for foobar it is
C:\Program Files\foobar2000\foobar2000.exe

--- Now in the right pane create a new string value by right clicking in a empty space and selecting New --> String Value. Name it as Path.

--- Double click on the path string just created and in the value data field give the location of the program folder where that program is residing. i.e. the folder where the program is installed.
In my case it is C:\Program Files\foobar2000
It looks like this.

--- Now the work is done. Close the registry.

--- Type in the name you just used in the Run box and hit enter and the application will start.


If it doesn't you went wrong somewhere. Follow the steps again carefully.