Thursday, September 10, 2009
Need a Smart Startup for Windows?
Windows doesn’t load as fast as it used to do earlier. It’s a common headache that many users face with their laptops and PCs, especially after installing a bunch of applications. It’s even more annoying if the PC is entry-level or outdated. When Windows starts up, a dozen programs demand system resources simultaneously. These include the antivirus program, firewall,download manager, device drivers,instant messenger, and many such applications.
Therefore if you have quite a lot of programs starting when Windows starts, each program will try and grab CPU time so that it can load. If each program tries to do this at the same time, you soon notice the slow down that occurs, due to your CPU trying to help all the programs to load, and your hard disk accessing multiple files.
Queuing applications that load at startup can reduce startup time. For example,it makes a lot of sense to allow the device drivers and antivirus to load first followed by the download manager and instant messenger. But first you need to disable the applications and services that you don’t need as soon as Windows starts. You may be fine with eliminating the download manager and instant messenger from the startup list and launching them manually only when you need them.
Most advanced users get this first part correct by using Window’s built-in utility called System Configuration Utility, but many are unaware that startup tasks can be queued.Here is free tool called Startup Delayer, which allows you to configure which programs to start first and which ones to delay when your computer is rebooted. You can set a custom delay for each one, even drag the visual display graph which shows you exactly how your programs are starting and allows you to easily modify the order or adjust delay times.
You can drag and drop to the bottom box and use the slider to adjust the delay time, or open the item and adjust to more than 2 minute delay. Nice small graphical interface telling you how much longer before the next program will start and you can start it earlier if desired by clicking on Start Now. By double clicking the program you can set the time in hours, seconds and/or minutes
The option to load a program at startup is provided during its installation, but the pre-checked boxes go past your eyes when you keep hitting the ‘Next’ button until the ‘Finish’ button appears. So keep an eye on the ‘Launch at Startup’ option the next time you install any software, especially download managers and instant messengers. But at times, entries are made automatically to the startup list after the installation—a common feature with webcam and printer applications.
The startup keeps slowing down as programs keep piling up in the list, and it becomes unbearable when the list gets bloated. You can guess how long it will take for Windows to start up by counting the number of icons in the notification area. If it’s more than four, it’s time to trim down your startup list. Make sure you don’t uncheck items related to the antivirus program, firewall and critical drivers in the startup list, or else they will malfunction or stop functioning from the next reboot. In case you do, select them immediately after the next reboot.
FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO BOOST
WINDOWS STARTUP
Friday, August 7, 2009
How to Download Embedded Flash Files
Flash has been popular format available in the net for Animations, music, games, advertisements or even streaming presentations. Speaking of games, here’s a list of site
1. How to save flash in IE browser
- Click Tools – Internet Options
- In the General Tab, click the Settings button available in the Temporary Internet Files group.
- Click View Files to open your Temporary Internet Files folder.
- Click View files – Details. Now click View – Arrange Icons By – Internet Address.
- Depending upon the webpage, there could one or more Flash files (Shockwave Flash Object) under the Internet Address.
Once you find the right flash file, right-click and choose Copy. Then paste the swf file in any other directory.
Sometimes there is an ActiveX Security warning ,you may right click the “Information bar” and allow the blocked content to view/play the file.
2. How to save Flash Files in Firefox
A)For Newbie's
a. Click Tools > Page Info
b. Click the Media Tab
c. This tab lists all image formats, icons, style sheets and flash files that were rendered by the webpage. Scroll down the list, locate the swf file, and save the flash file into a place/folder on your Hard disk/Desktop.
B)For Advanced Users
a. Type about:cache?device=disk (Disk cache device) in the address bar
b Press Ctrl+F, type .swf and try to search for the flash file.
c. Click the SWF URL to open the Cache Entry Information page.
d. Right click on the link and choose “Save link as”
You can open the files in Winamp also.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
How to Download Embedded Flash Files using your Browser
How to Download Embedded Flash Files using your Browser read more
Sunday, May 24, 2009
How to Embed Image in Yahoo Mail?
GMail has options to sending inline pictures (embedding) that I posted earlier - GMail Labs Lets Users Insert Images into GMail ,How to Embed an Image Into GMAIL . Whether it is possible Yahoo Mail ,without as an attachment? yes it is possible.You can follow the methods.
Open your Yahoo Mail and ensure rich text formatting is enabled in Options ,
Now you have to upload the images from your PC to anyone of the free image hosting sites.There are many available in net,try a Google check:http://tinyurl.com/qnho82 .Here I am using Photobucket.After uploading your image,just copy it.For that highlight the image with mouse , right click & select copy( Ctrl+C)
If your image is larger than some 640x640 pixels, consider shrinking it to more handy proportions before you put it online.
To trim images to be lean and fit for emails use ResizR. -ResizR is a free and very useful little utility. ResizR allows you to resize an image from your local computer or the web.Click Browse and select the desired image. Use the slider or the entry field to choose the desired width. Use a width between 300 and 640 pixels.Try 340 pixels first. Click ResizR.
Drag and drop the resulting image to your Desktop. Another free utility is VSO Image Resizer.Alternatively you can use tools like Image Resizer PowerToy | IrfanView
Now paste this image to your yahoo mail .You can add more images like this way.Finally, send your Yahoo! Mail message as usual
If you are using other mail clients like Outlook/Outlook Express, it is easy for you to add images as inline.But if you don't have Yahoo Plus account, you need to configure your yahoo mail with YPOPs! Download YPOPs! from here http://ypopsemail.com/ .How to configure it in Outlook Express here and in Outlook here . If you have a Yahoo Singapore or Yahoo Hong Kong ,you can configure Yahoo Mail in Outlook/Outlook Express .These are providing Free Yahoo POP3 email account.
Here is how to add images inline in Outlook 2007
Open new mail message >Insert >Picture .Select your pictures from your PC as shown below
Send your messages as usual.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
How to Migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7
Microsoft finally announced they will release 6 Windows 7 Editions as Windows 7 Starter , Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium , Windows 7 Professional , Windows 7 Ultimate Edition , and Windows 7 Enterprise .
Unlike XP,Vista users can upgrade directly to Windows 7, so your files and apps should migrate to Win7 without any problems. Windows 7 doesn't have a direct upgrade path from XP, they have to manually migrate their files and apps. But Microsoft give assurance to the customers that they can always downgrade to any previous version of Windows.
As majority are using Windows XP,Microsoft is developing an excellent tool “Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010″ for easily migrating Windows XP to Windows 7.The tool Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 is in beta state now and it is capable of migrating in 30 minutes.With USMT can help you improve and simplify your migration process.It captures desktop, application settings, user accounts and users’ files, and then migrates them to a new Windows installation.
Here is an embedded video from Jeremy Chapman, senior product manager, Windows 7 Deployment.
Learn how to use the User State Migration Tool (USMT) to migrate user files and settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 using a default installation. Watch this video from Microsoft TechNet : Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7
The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 beta is available at http://connect.microsoft.com .Further Reading: Step-by-Step: Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration. A video was posted at MSDN blog by Neilhut
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Windows Clipboard and Office Clipboard
The main difference is that the Windows Clipboard only holds one item at a time. When a new item is added, it replaces any existing one. Although the Windows Clipboard works when you copy, cut or paste, the Windows Clipboard Viewer isn’t readily accessible by default these days. However, if you open the clpbrd.exe file in the C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder, you can see anything that has been recently copied or cut.
The Office Clipboard can hold up to 24 items .The first item is only deleted when the 25th is added. The Office Clipboard allows you to choose whether items are collected or not when the Clipboard Task pane isn’t displayed. (They’re always collected when the pane is displayed.)Under the Home tab, below Format Painter, click the arrow to the right of ‘Clipboard’. At the bottom of the displayed Task pane is an Options button. Check or don’t check ‘Collect Without Showing Office Clipboard’.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Flagging Messages In MS Outlook
Most people have their official mails configured on Outlook. While some of these mails are circulars or internal information, some of them need a response in return. If you are in the middle of something important, you may have to put off the replying for another time. How do you ensure that you reply to your mails without forgetting?
This article looks at the importance of follow-up and how to use Outlook Flags to assist with follow-up and keeping track of contacts. Many people think that they are capable of handling all their follow-ups without an organized system, but usually they are just not aware of how much business they’re losing because they actually cannot cope with the amount of follow-up required.
Flags are used as follow-ups and reminders on e-mail messages and contacts. You use Outlook flags to remind yourself to follow up on an issue or to indicate a request for someone else. A reminder date and time can also be added and displays in the reminder window.
There are 6 different coloured flags available for e-mails. You use the colored message flags to manage your incoming e-mail items by flagging the items for different kinds of follow-up. For example, use the red flag to mark messages that require immediate attention, and the blue flag for messages to read later. When you add a message flag, the background color of the Flag Status column changes color to make it easy for you to quickly find items in the message list while scrolling.
To Flag an Outlook Message
Start Outlook Application.
Click the folder in which the mail appears.
Right-click on the mail to be replied to.
In the context menu, select the “Follow Up” option.
Right-click in the flag column of the message and choose the desired flag.
OR
Right-click on another column such as the message subject, choose Follow Up and then the flag color
- In the Flag to list, you can add a reminder if you want, or type your own.Right click on the Flag
- Enter a date and time in the Due by boxes.
- On clicking OK, note that the e-mail message is now marked to be followed up (in this case Read by Thursday, 30 April at 4.00 PM):
Creating Views to Organize your Follow-Ups
Once you marked various items to be follow-up, you need to create a series of views to focus on items to be followed up.For this you have to create a filter
To open the Filter dialog box, point to Current View on the View menu, click Customize Current View, and then click Filter.
In “More Choices” you can create filter and press “OK”
Marking an Item Complete
Once you have done the follow-up, you can mark the item complete. Do the following:
If it’s an e-mail message, clicking on the Flag Status column will mark the e-mail complete.Alternatively you may right-click on the e-mail and select the options from the Follow Up menu.
Also check:-
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
How to Set Up an Auto Reply in Gmail & Yahoo
GMail
1.Login to your GMail Account. Gmail > Settings > Labs > Canned Responses
2.Make it enable and save changes
3.Compose your mail, you can save the message as canned message by using the link below the subject line.
4.Using Gmail's filters, you can set a filter to grab one of your saved responses, create an automated reply, and hit the Send button for you.You can set up different automated messages for different keywords.
Yahoo
1.Select Options on the Yahoo! Mail navigation bar.
3.Enter the start & end date of the auto responder.
4.Create message in the "Generic Response" that will be sent out as a reply to all incoming mail.
5.Turn Auto Response On
Saturday, March 21, 2009
My Documents Folder Opens At Windows Startup
Sometimes when XP boots, instead of going to the desktop and icons, it brings up a window and goes directly into My Documents folder.When you are facing such a problem, is really annoying since you have to close it every time.This could be due to a long file name or a file path with spaces in the startup program list.
To check it try the following .Click Start - Run, type, MSINFO32 and press enter. This will open the System Information window.Click the Software Environment and then Startup. This will show the exact command lines of the software loaders. if you find any path that uses a long file name or a path with spaces then this entry could be the problem.
Just follow the steps to edit the registry settings :-
Start > Run > type "regedit" (without the quotes)
This will open up the registry editor. Then navigate to:
HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon
In there there should be a value (on right hand side of screen) called Userinit.
Change the value that reads as,
C:\Windows\Syste32\Userinit.exe,C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe
to
C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe,
If you do see a duplicated string in there similar to the above - simply double click on the Userinit value and edit the data so as to delete everything to the right of the first comma (,). In the case above you would leave only:C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,
Close the registry editor and restart the PC. The My Documents window should no longer open automatically at startup.
If you are not comfortable with registry editing ,then try this solution from Kellys Korner :My Documents Folder Opens Upon Boot .Download ,save the file , right click and merge
If that does not help, see what startup applications are running. Get the Autoruns utility from www.sysinternals.com and inspect the startup programs.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wink : Tutorial and Presentation Creation Software
Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.
You can include forward and back buttons in your presentations to give viewers control over the playback speed, or have each frame advance according to the time you set. Through the use of GoTo buttons, you can enable your viewers to jump to specific points in your tutorial. Using templates, you can save various properties from your project (font, callout style, button positions, etc.) and then apply them to every frame in your project. With a background image you can add a logo or text that will be visible through every frame of the presentation.
Features
- Freeware
- Cross-Platform: Available for all flavours of Windows and various versions of Linux (x86 only).
- Audio: Record voice as you create the tutorial for explaining better.
- Input formats: Capture screenshots from your PC, or use images in BMP/JPG/PNG/TIFF/GIF formats.
- Output formats: Macromedia Flash, Standalone EXE, PDF, PostScript, HTML or any of the above image formats. Use Flash/html for the web, EXE for distributing to PC users and PDF for printable manuals.
- Multilingual support
- Smart Capture Tools: Capture screenshots automatically as you use your PC, based on mouse and keyboard input
- Performance/Quality: Creates highly compressed Flash presentations ideal for using on the web
