How To Shutdown Windows XP or Vista Instantly

Similar to our article on the Windows Task Manager. Users using Windows XP or Vista experience delays in closing programs, and their system. Just like our Windows Task Manager tutorial, there is a similar way of forcing Windows to shut down without wait every time. Follow this simple tweak tutorial and your Windows OS will shut down without hefty delay!

Windows is designed to give programs time to close. This is Microsoft's fail safe to make sure that nothing goes wrong when closing programs and to prevent you from losing information. It's simple why they would do this, they don't want that college student finishing the 3,000 word report at the last minute to lose all his work. Well, more so Microsoft doesn't want anyone to hear about it including their customers. They have done a great job in protecting loss of data and allowing programs to terminate in sequence. Since many users would rather have their computer shutdown/restart on command, including myself, I will provide you with this tutorial. The Windows XP and Windows Vista guides are exactly similar, the only difference is how you get to your registry editor.

Note: Today we will be editing the registry, so remember to be careful and follow what I say closely to prevent any harm to your system. The odds of anything going wrong are around 1/100 if you follow correctly.

Windows XP
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type in Regedit, (Welcome to the Registry!)
3. Collapse, (click the +), HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then collapse Control Panel.
4. Click on the folder "Desktop". Locate WaitToKillAppTimeout in the window on the right of your registry editor. Which is highlighted in the picture to the side.
5. Right click on WaitToKillAppTimeout and click Modify from the drop down. Change the Value Date number to a number between 1,000 and 2,000. Then click Ok. This is the time in milliseconds that Windows waits for applications on shutdown.
6. In the same window as WaitToKillAppTimeout, locate HungAppTimeOut.
7. Once again, right click on this string and click Modify. Change this value from 1,500 to 2,000. NOTE: You now won't have much problems in ending programs normally with Windows Task Manager. HungAppTimeOut's value is the amount of time that your OS will wait on unresponsive programs.
8. Close registry editor, and test it out without closing any programs that don't require you to save anything.

Windows Vista
1. Click Start, then enter in the search box "regedit."
2. Click on the resulting regedit, which should load the Registry Editor.
3. Collapse, (click the +), HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then collapse Control Panel.
4. Click on the folder "Desktop". Locate WaitToKillAppTimeout in the window on the right of your registry editor. Which is highlighted in the picture above.
5. Right click on WaitToKillAppTimeout and click Modify from the drop down. Change the Value Date number to a number between 1,000 and 2,000. Then click Ok. This is the time in milliseconds that Windows Vista waits for applications on shutdown.
6. In the same window as WaitToKillAppTimeout, locate HungAppTimeOut.
NOTE: You now won't have much problems in ending programs normally with Windows Task Manager. HungAppTimeOut's value is the amount of time that your OS will wait on unresponsive programs.
7. Once again, right click on this string and click Modify. Change this value from 1,500 to 2,000.
8. Close registry editor, test it out without closing any programs that don't require you to save anything.

Remember to bookmark us! When you comeback check out our other guides and fine tune your PC using registry editor, and more!

How To Turn Off Windows XP Login Screen

Fixed and Updated: Saturday, April 05, 2008

Not too long ago, I wanted to turn off my XP login screen. It annoyed me that when I started up my computer I had to wait to get to the prompt and enter information instead of let it go all the way to my desktop. I thought this would be simple enough, I looked on the internet and it gave me simple instructions. Unfortunately I had quite a few problems doing so. The success of trying to turn off this screen depends on your settings but hopefully I will provide enough information Webingly (;D) that you won't have as much trouble as me. Keep in mind I am talking about the blue "Welcome" screen that is user friendly and presents a warmthy invite.

Above should be what you are trying to get rid of.

The Windows XP login screen is optional, but turning it off can be somewhat a struggle. Also a possible security hazard, because anyone will be able to login to your computer without any problems. Please make sure that you are fully confident in who has access to your computer and your primary account before proceeding. Get ready to hold your breathe, because unlike how some simple websites may make this seem. Shutting off your Login screen can be a real pain in the ass. I will add the Vista version when I make sure that all of my information is correct to a T.
You must be logged into an account with Administrator privileges to proceed. Make sure if you already haven't to remove all XP accounts but 1 administrator account. You may want to remove the password from the remaining account but this is optional. Then try to restart if you changed anything. If you didn't change anything or you still have to pick an account to login to, continue with this tutorial.

Windows XP
1. Click Start, and then Run
2. Type "control userpasswords2" without the quotes and click Ok.
3. This is where it can get a little sticky, on your screen should be a similar window as the one to the right.

4. Notice the box I highlighted with black. This is the main Administrator account, the top dog by default that you may notice becomes visible in Safe Mode.

5. The box highlighted red is my nifty XP account, with Administrator privileges.Yours should be similar, being listed under the Administrator username. This will be the account that we will set up to log into by default every time Windows starts up. For myself, I am going to make the username "Nick" the default account I log into.

From here on out, there will be only one account that everyone will have access to.
6. On the User Accounts window, uncheck the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" box. Click Apply. A prompt will appear. Leave this prompt up and don't change anything, proceed carefully to step 8.

8. If you don't login using a password to your computer, all you need to do is type in the XP username in the box and click ok. The XP username would be "Nick" in the window above. If you login using a password, enter the username and password you use to sign into the remaining account on startup.
NOTE: There are other methods of doing this. Please e-mail me if you have any problems!

9. You should now be done! Congratulations, contact me or go over the steps again if you encounter any problems.

Want to make your computer start faster? Check out our tutorial here.

How To Turn Off System Restore

Looking to gain some quick memory and hard drive space? Problems with viruses? Whatever the reason, this article will tell you how to shut off System Restore. A program installed on Windows operating systems that uses technology called "Shadow Copy" which waits for changes on your computer and runs in the background. When your computer makes a change, the program makes a copy of certain parts of the Windows environment so that you can revert back to make changes if necessary. System Restore is installed on Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows ME.

Unfortunately, viruses can store themselves in the area reserved for System Restore. From here viruses can utilize themselves and at the same time be able to survive if the user uses System Restore to try to get rid of it. This could be why you've come looking to disable System Restore. Or maybe you just want to save a little memory and get back some of the reserved hard drive space. Here is how to toggle (turn off or on), system restore or change change settings. To turn off just repeat the steps and uncheck the box.

Windows Millennium
1. Go to Start, and then "Control Panel"
2. Click on the Performance icon and then File System.
3. Click on Troubleshooting at the top of the window.
4. You should see the option "Disable System Restore", check the box.
5. Click Ok and restart.

Windows XP
1. Right Click "My Computer" on your desktop, or click Start and it will be listed in the menu.
2. Click Properties, and above the General tab click the System Restore tab.
3. Click the check box "Turn Off System Restore on all drives"

Windows Vista
1. Click Start/
2. In the menu, click Control Panel/
3. Locate and click "System and Maintenance," in this window go to the left and click "System Protection." NOTE: You may have to enter administrator account Info.
4. Your hard drive or drives will be listed with a check next to the ones with System Restore enabled. To disable, uncheck these boxes and on the prompt click "Turn System Restore Off."

Remember, System Restore is inoperable until you recheck one of the boxes again and let it make another restore point. You can always load the window that deals with System Restore and change the setting that lists with how much space should be left for System Restore, rather than disabling it.

Find Wi-Fi Hotspots In Your Area

Earlier today I was trying to find Wi-Fi hot spots to see if I could get on the internet with my Ipod Touch in some areas. I came across a great website that I would like to share.

The website is here. JiWire is an online hotspot locator, where you can enter your zip, city, state etc to locate Wi-Fi areas. Something that suprised me was that the midwest is far up there on their Wireless technology, having over 10k hotspots located in the Midwest. JiWire is great if you want a large list of all the Wi-Fi spots in your vacinity to use. I was suprised to see such a large list, all of the locations that I knew of were on there for my specific city area. I reccomend this website, quick easy and great interface!

How To Change Your File's Extensions

Ah, it does not get better then this. A nice quick answer to a simple question "How do I change my files extension?" Whether you want to change a .txt to a .doc or anything else. Here is how:

First we have to change the annoying setting in our windows folder that does not allow us to do this to begin with.

Enable Extension Changing on Windows

Windows 98 and ME
1. Go to My Documents, or any folder for that matter.
2. Click View
3. Click Folder Options
4. Deselect the "Hide file extensions for known file types" option that will, by default, be checked.

Windows 2000 and XP
1. Go to My Documents, or any folder for that matter.
2. Click Tools
3. Click Folder Options
4. Deselect the "Hide file extensions for known file types" option that will, by default, be checked.

Yay! Now you can change the extensions to whatever you want! If your not sure on how to do this, just right click the file/program/Dynamic Link Library ;)/whatever (not shortcut), and click Rename. The extension is all of the letters after the period.

NOTE: You can change the extension of the program to whatever you want, but what the program or file is intended to do effects whether the determined extension will work or not.

Video Game Rating System Fix- About time.

Although it won't be here in America, hopefully the UK can lead by example. The prime minister Gordon Brown has confirmed the research and implementation of a new rating system. This system is not only to help control exposure from various obscene elements on video games, but social networks as well. This new program will also monitor advertising to prevent unwanted attention from under-aged viewers. Along with this system, a big addition is to inform the parents of the children these laws and guidelines are to be keeping in check. The UK suggests that the current standards are sufficient, but not specific nor informative. Many parents don't even understand what their kids are doing in the online world because it is past their generation. Parts of this program will consist in helping to at least educate them so that they can more effectively keep track of what their child is doing.

With the addition of popular social networks such as Facebook and Myspace. The UK government is hoping to put a big hand on the growing online social communities, due to their increasing popularity. There are risks that come with visiting these popular online social areas, including explicit images and contact with unwanted peers.

Hopefully the rest of the world will join the effort to moderate these to a certain degree. I enjoy some of the new video games that are arising myself, but the exposure to small children I can see having a negative effect. Control at an early age on the use of these addicting technological devices will hopefully provide, and at least guide, our children into a safer environment as they learn and grow.

Source: Here

Mobile To Be Installed In Aircraft?

The UK is now heavily considering installing special devices to allow users to use their mobile devices in planes. Most of us who travel, and even many who don't, know about the big rumor on a cell phone could cause a plane's doom. The devices that would allow for these calls are known as "pico cells" that relay the calls to a satellite before sent being sent down to be routed out.

Once a plane would reach altitude just short of 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) the service could be activated allowing a mobile service. Phone calls and other mobile services would have an increase in pricing due to the complexity of the system just to handle these calls. Problems range from pricing, deals with mobile companies, and out of service issues. This is because unless more airports install these bases that receive these signals, especially those which will leave UK and Europe to other parts of the world.

On a personal note, it might just be too inconvenient for other passengers. This may be similar to being on the ground next to someone on a bus who utterly must tell his companion everything he did today and every street he passes. We've all been in public with this people, maybe some of you reading have a habit of this yourself. Quite annoying to society sitting around these heavy users , changing the social patterns towards that of technology. The future seems to be dimming as so many people fully occupied with someone miles and miles away, ignoring that potential companion sitting next to them.

Better Understand Your Computer-Windows Task Manager

To kick off our new domain name, I've picked a topic that will serve great benefit to understanding modern computing. This information will help to improve your computer skills and allow alot less maintenance because you will be better informed. Yeah what the hell am I talking about, a 250 page textbook? No, as much as I would love to try to sell you something, I am just going to talk about Windows Task Manager. Mr. Ctrl+Alt+Del, the guy we all get to know as our computers become inferior to newer technology and higher grade software.

Luckily for me the Windows Task Manager, which I will abbreviate WTM, is the same in most Windows OS's used today. The first piece of information that you probably didn't know about, is when using the Windows Task Manager (accessed by Ctrl+Alt+Del for the real newbs out there ;) the most important tab to you is the processes tab. NOT the Applications tab.

Since there is so much that can be identified in WTM, some of it I will save for a secondary tutorial. I took the liberty of putting my own WTM up to walk through with you. First thing I want to stress is common computer users should learn the basics of WTM; because the information provided in this one window will clear up alot about what is going on in your computer.

We first see that there is a list of titles with the extensions .exe which stands for executable. These are more than likely ALL the programs that are running in your background. Anything not listed or shown is 9.9/10 a virus or something malicious. Each exe has a "User Name", CPU usage, and RAM or Memory Usage. At the bottom, I can identify the total amount or Proccesses,CPU, and Commit Charge (Commit Charge won't be of use to my tutorial.) You should be able to tell what each exe is, such as "aol software", I know that I have AIM running so this must be apart of AIM (Aol Instant Messenger.) I can see that this particular part of AIM is using about 4k of my RAM resources, but not actively using my CPU. Numbers under 20k are ideal normal programs like firewalls, messengers, e-mail, and so on. That 20k and lower is a nice amount to be used for the average program so we wont worry about it. Now look at firefox, my firefox is using a hefty amount, 97k, particularly because I am most actively on it. I have alot of free RAM because I am not using other RAM intensive programs. Thus I am not receiving any lagging from my computer. If you look occasionally in this area, you can sort of get a gist of what your ideal amount of memory being used is. The amount varies from computer to computer by how much RAM you have installed, I currently am poor, thus I have 512 mb installed ;).

Typically when your computer is going slow from a certain program, malicious or normal, the CPU is the number that will be high. CPU usage is measured in percent. So if an anti-virus program was scanning right now, it would have about 40k of memory used but about 60%+ of my CPU being used. This can heavily slow things down, the percent of your CPU being used will determine it's total processing power. Similar to my RAM, my CPU blows, so a simple virus scan will take up a large portion of my CPU. What uses the CPU is constant flowing information that needs to be processed and sent out to different areas of the computer. As you can determine yourself, Scanning programs, games, video etc will take CPU as well as RAM.

Hopefully this hasn't been too confusing. CPU is Processing, you can think of it as the thing that deals with active information. Memory Usage deals with your RAM, programs with alot of information to keep track of will use the most RAM. For example, a game that is half text based and half graphic based, will use CPU for the graphics area, and memory for the other areas. Graphic Cards have their own type of RAM specifically for graphics to relieve pressure on RAM that is used for your OS and other programs, so some massive games will use less memory than you would assume.

How do we apply this to our everyday computing lives? Like so, let's say that your computer is freezing and pausing badly, and you manage to get the life saver WTM up. Alot of beginner's to computers will try to get rid of the programs that "aren't responding" by ending their "task" from the default window in WTM. This is a waste of time and will take awhile to get done because Windows will take all the precautions before shutting it down so that you won't lose any information. More than likely, waiting for it to respond again will be the same amount of wait time then if you were to just End Task it. The best trick to do, is to go to the processes tab, and then organize your list a little.


Click on your Mem Usage tab, because if your computer is going slow, 80% of the time it will be because of heavy RAM usage. Clicking on the tab will organize the numbers in either ascending or decending order by greatest or least amount of memory used.

Okay our computer is lagging and I have this menu brought up, let's say that my CPU next to firefox is 80. I can quickly identify what is the problem, even though alot of the time you should already know. By experience you should know your computer enough to whether you should just shut the program down and restart, or wait for the computer to get back up to speed. I don't want to wait, so by selecting Firefox and clicking end proccess, the program is insantly closed after a confirmation in the prompt. I simply removed it from my RAM and closed it down. No memory loss, no restart or problems, the program is simply gone. This works EVERY time instantly, the only times this won't work is if the program is maybe a Anti-Virus program that protects itself by not allowing it to be shut down in any way other then it's user interface. If your still having problems ending a programs process, I will have a turorial up soon! Using this method is much more ideal then trying to end the processes and wait for good old Windows to make sure that everything is okay if it closes the program. You will also be able to identify and shutdown many malicious and useless programs to free up memory space!

Where is the connection between anything else I will do on my computer? Well, now that we know what we generally want loaded onto our computer, we can spot things that shouldn't be loaded. Fore example, if I had spyware on my computer running called WebAd. I can find WebAd, and look for any counterparts that may be running with it, and end them. Then I can go to Windows System Configuration (MSCONFIG, click here for information on using this) and locate this program/s and remove them from start up. You don't need to be having problems to visit your System Configuration Utility, now that you have an idea on what you want to run or stop from running on startup, you can weed out programs to have a faster boot up too! You now know a little more about what your RAM and CPU deal with! Basic troubleshooting will come just that much easier to you with this knowledge. Use it and build on it to be more efficient in using your computer.

The methods described are safe, and if there is information you have to be lost (like a word document) you WILL lose it if you chose to end that specific document. But if its an ordinary program like a browser that stumbled onto the wrong website, this ending the process will quickly solve your problem no questions asked. A secondary method, and more automatic, is editing the registry to prevent Windows from waiting too long on unresponsive programs. This guide is located here, the registry value you will want to change is named HungAppTimeOut. I suggest reading the entire guide ;).

If you find this article helpful, please take a second to look at our sponsors on the side. Thanks ;)

Downtime

For all the new visitors out there, we are now happy to announce we have our own domain name. Webingly.com will now be the default home address for the blog! I hope to develop this into a full website. Bookmark us and visit for all of our exciting news and development to come!

It will be a small while before everything is working perfectly again.

Indexing Annoyance

What is Indexing and what does this have to do with tweaking your Windows OS for the better? Well, Windows Indexing is a Windows Service that runs in the background constantly maintaining and organizing the files on your hard drive. This way when you want to search for these files the search locates files a great deal faster. The Windows based search that is, the one you probably find yourself using about once a month.

Why we want to shut this is off is simple, the Indexing Service runs in the background and is not useful to most users. Window's search function will still work perfectly, it will only be slower in delivering results. Aside from the CPU memory it takes up, Indexing also causes your hard drive to make noise. When your computer is idle you can hear the hard drive making noises, alot of the times it is because this service is running. Indexing is designed to run especially when the computer is idle, idealistically to cause the least inconvenience. But on both Windows XP and Vista, this service can be caught running frequently while you are using the computer.

This tweak is for Windows XP and Windows Vista, and can be reversed easily at anytime, with no risk to harming your computer. Update: Sometimes exceptionally slow computers will load on start up slower by turning indexing off, if this happens you may want to turn indexing back on. You won't know until you restart after turning indexing off. Keep in mind this is rare.

Windows XP
1. Open My Computer so that you can see all of your hard drives.

2. Right click on a hard drive, and click Properties.

3. At the bottom of the window that appears, which should look like the one to the right, at the bottom uncheck "Allow Indexing..."

4. There will be a prompt showing that it is making a changes, let it go, it won't take long. If you get any Access Denied errors, just click ignore all.

5. Repeat this for all of your hard drives and your Done!







Windows Vista
1. Go to start and in the search menu type in "Windows Search Service" without the quotes.

2. Right Click on the result, and click Properties.

3. In the drop down menu next to Startup type, select Disabled.

4. At the lower part of the window, select Stop to stop the service from running. If for any reason you want to change this, repeat the steps to turn Indexing back on.

5. Click Apply and then Ok.

Disabling Indexing is argued if it really does improve performance on your system. The answer is most likely but not always, Indexing occurs in Profiles, Documents, Start Menu, E-mails and a few other areas. If your computer is very robust in these areas, disabling this service will affect performance. Many people though, see great results in disabling Indexing. Digg it.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

You read it right, number 8, one after seven. It seems Microsoft is heavy at work on yet another new web browser, Internet Explorer 8. This new web browser is currently released subtly as a beta in it's first testing stages by developers. So far there are only a few listed features, along with proclaimed "Security Enhancements" and a hint of even greater speed. One of the new changes are highlighting the main domain of an address, as seen below. I suppose this is just to clear confusion for people by secluding the home page. The first of the newest features is Activities. Activities are listed on Microsoft's website as quote "contextual services that provide quick access to external services from any webpage." Big words, and yet another big attempt to connect information and add convenience. Basically, as you can see in this image taken from Microsoft's Website, Activities will be a utility to send and compare information and other content to other popular websites. From the picture: Digging, Blogging, and various social networks are some of these websites that you can send information to. Activities also have a mapping feature that when a mouse pointer is placed over, will map the location of the highlighted text. To use Activities, you first highlight content from a website and wait for a little icon. Then select which Activitity you want. For example, to search a word in Encarta you would highlight the word then click Activities then Encarata. I will be interested in seeing other Activities they come up with; Activities have high potential to be convenient with the right features.

Next on their new feature list has caught my eye, WebSlices. This application is simply emphasis on mini feeds and gadgets that are circulating. For WebSlices, you just put your mouse pointer next to a WebSlice compatible area. The little purple icon that you can see below will appear, upon clicking on it you will get a prompt like so. You can test it out on Ebay, who have already implemented these for developers and premature IE8 users.

I wanted to test WebSlices on monitoring auctions on Ebay, which turned out a great success. WebSlices allows you to monitor Ebay auctions flawlessly without opening any web pages or leaving your current website. Ebay has integrated itself so well into WebSlices, that the WebSlice of an expired auction appears red informing you of it's expiration. WebSlices contain the most updated portions of your subscribed content, displayed in a miniature view. Chose the website itself, or just it's content to add as a WebSlice, then from the IE bar you can load them quickly and conveniently to view before choosing to view the entire page. Each WebSlice's content is either set by default or by the content developer. WebSlices are viewed like a mobile web page, with the most essential content fitted into a little box.

WebSlices look the most promising, but Activities aren't far behind in my list. Both new features (and the supposed enhanced speed and security) are attempting put a gap between Microsoft and Mozilla. Each feature adding a little more convenience in navigating and sharing information. If you are interested in testing these features, download Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 here. Note: IE8 is buggy, I experienced problems with the scroll bar and a few other bugs, so it probably wouldn't be best to just use it out of the box. The new features are for the most part functional from my personal testing, but not completely developed. Still, Activties and WebSlices are still very interesting, and display proudly that Microsoft is ready to fight for the number 1 spot against it's competitors. Digg it.

Start Menu Speed Tweak

Do you have an overly obese Start Menu? Well depending on it's size, and your computers RAM, you might be interested in this little tweak. Please note, anytime you mess around with the registry you are taking a risk. The registry holds all the values of the inter workings of windows and should only be edited with caution. The danger of messing your computer up on this specific tweak is about 1/50.

The first tweak is for Windows XP users only, you shouldn't have the need to speed up versions below XP because their start menu has virtually no lag. As for Windows Vista, that tweak will be our second tweak, both are similar but the interfaces are still different. Pick the appropriate one to follow based on your Windows OS. Windows Vista is exactly similar in that you are doing exactly the same thing. Changing the same value, using the same registry editor, the only slight difference is how you open Registry Editor. I felt my reader's should be able to look at the exact method, clearing up any fog between the two ;).

What these tweaks do is very simple. Similar to our Firefox and IE speed tweak, this changes the delay put in default by Microsoft before the Start Menu is loaded. Instantly could cause problems and demand too much from some computers, so the delay they selected is basically a safe number. You will not ruin your computer doing this most likely in anyway. So long as you stick to where I guide you and change only what I tell you to, we will be fine and you will have a great outcome ;).

Windows XP
1. Go to Run by clicking Start and clicking on Run....
2. Type in "regedit" without the quotes and click Ok.
3. Welcome to the notorious Registry Editor, home of the advanced computer settings.
4. Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER at the top left of the folder hierarchy, it should stand out along with 2 other keys: Classes_Root, Local_Machine, _Users, and Current_Config. NOTE: It may not show some of these values if you've messed with the registry before, but if thats the case then you should know how to fold them back up to view the main Keys by double clicking on the main folders.
5. Double click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER to make it drop or "collapse" the list of folders.
6. Next, "collapse" the control panel folder by clicking on the plus next to it, or double clicking it.
7. Now collapse the Desktop folder and locate this value name in the right list. It should look like this:MenuShowDelay which will have a default Data Value of 400. This 400 is the delay value that we want to change!
8. Right Click on the string MenuShowDelay (it's name), and click Modify.
9. Enter a new value from about 50-75.
10. Click Ok and you're done! You will now notice as LARGE difference in the menu loading speed. Specifically the "All Programs" menu.
11. You may or may not have to log off and back onto your XP account to see a difference.


Windows Vista
1. Click Start and in the Search box type in "regedit" without the quotes of course.
2. Regedit will appear in the results, double click on it.
3. Welcome to the notorious Registry Editor, home of the advanced computer settings.
4. Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER at the top left of the folder heirarachy, it should stand out along with 2 other keys: Classes_Root, Local_Machine, _Users, and Current_Config. NOTE: It may not show some of these values if you've messed with the registry before, but if thats the case then you should know how to fold them back up to view the main Keys by double clicking on the main folders.
5. Double click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER to make it drop or "collapse" the list of folders.
6. Next, "collapse" the control panel folder by clicking on the plus next to it, or double clicking it.
7. Now collapse the Desktop folder and locate this value name in the right list. It should look like this:
MenuShowDelay which will have a default Data Value of 400. This 400 is the delay value that we want to change!
8. Right Click on the string MenuShowDelay (it's name), and click Modify.
9. Enter a new value from about 50-75.
10. Click Ok and you're done! You will now notice as LARGE difference in the menu loading speed. Specifically the "All Programs" menu.
11. You may have to log on and back off to see any results.

Winamp Pushing for The Top?

Winamp is a growing media player primarily among heavy user computers. Why? Because early on Winamp managed to take advantage of the radio. Winamp holds all of the same basic Windows/Zune Media player features, excluding things like Album Art which come with the pro package. Now offering over 500 stations from Gospel to Metal, it's hard to not want to check it out. The feature is Shoutcast Radio, and with a click of a button you can sort through hundreds of interesting radio stations such as "The Buzz" to find your appropriate taste.

With "Shoutcast Radio" and AOL video and radio, the program has quickly become a mini entertainment center. CD Burning also comes with all versions of Winamp, contributing to the effort to close the gap between the titan media players. Depending on which version of Winamp you have, there are set restrictions on the non-pro versions. Winamp is becoming an ideal media player even with its basic free "full" version.

The design is somewhat cloudy, because at the start there are so many options one has to take a step back to figure out what the hell they are even looking at. There are tabs and links to multiple radios and your media library along with most played, never played and other somewhat useless clickables. Minor features include a browser with the newest version, and the common "visualizations" to take you on that psychedelic trip. The lite version is only about a total of 3 mb on average, with the pro scaling it up to 8 mb. A noticeably hefty upgrade, but the features in pro are simply just a gathering of features you can find for free all over the internet. Overall the full version is a great free radio player and has some sleek skins and features for all viewers. All at a nice small size with average weight on your computers memory. I recommend at least checking this media player out, it's small enough anyway ;).

Check out Winamp and all of its versions here.

Microsoft Surface

Amazing new technology that was actually presented almost a year ago! This computer is essentially that link from the movies to real life. Allowing the user to get photos, credit information and pay bills, games watch videos with low limits. Microsoft Surface technology may be many years ahead of actually being implemented, but videos demonstrating the capabilities are amazing. There are a variety of videos out there some displaying other tricks that can be seen on YouTube and other video websites, just google Microsft Surface. It would appear this technology is eliminating physical currency and other things, let's hope for the better.

Virus Total Online Virus Scanner

If you talk online or frequently download files from third party websites, this website is handy. Virus Total allows you to upload a file to be scanned by multiple virus databases. This comes in handy when downloading something and you don't have a virus scanner on hand or any sort of protection. Also, if you are uploading a file, a great way to display a files security is to link it to your scan result which is available when scanning is complete in your address bar. Although this may not be the quickest scanning method, Virus Total uses virus databases from all of the popular Anti-virus programs and many more that are less frequent. I recommend this to users wanting to scan files less than 10 mb.

SkyDrive- Innovative Free File Hosting by Microsoft?

Who would have thought, the corporate giant coming out with a file hosting service for free? Well, with Microsoft's constant fluctuations in stock maybe more than one would think, but this even surprised me. Microsoft's "SkyDrive" is a free file hosting service offering a beginning 5 gb of space, proceeding "Windows Folders" which was available to beta testers last year. The service's name is accurate, and the style is parallel with other similar services out there such as Omnidrive which provides 1 gb of free space. The webpage gives you a feel as if you were actually looking through a hard drive at files, including folders which at default are labeled like those on your computer. Files such as Video, Music, Documents and Pictures to organize whatever you upload. All hosted online and accessible online, the user can put the files in various folders and select whether or not they are viewable to the public, private, or even friends. Yes, file hosting friends, sounds like a feature that may be out of place. But at the same time this could allow private file sharing between groups of people other than just "friends" for easy access to important things. This could easily be seen as an attempt to link your Live ID with everything.

The design is very elegant and simple, and if you have had to host and move alot of files around like me, this is music to the ears. Click here, for a full size screen shot of the welcome page of SkyDrive. The design is simple and broken down to the bone, Personal Files, Shared Files, and Public Files. All of which have options on their privacy.

Uploading and downloading is also very simple, as you can see in this screen shot. The web address is provided if you would like to give it out to anyone for them to download your file. Once they reach the file or folder page, the download bottom is located right above the file. There is surprisingly no wait, no annoying image you have to type in or password to download the file. Just simply click "download" and the prompt to download will appear. Uploading is just as simple, allowing you to upload multiple files at once and then organize them in any way you wish.
Click here and try it out. You will probably be just as surprised as me. Or, also check out Microsoft Surface-Amazing Touch-screen Super Computer!

Spybot Search AND Destory!

Download Here


If you are looking for a great, small, quick and easy to use program to keep your computer protected from malicious programs, SpyBot Search and Destroy is your program. SpyBot has been around for years now as a free program, only accepting donations as the main source of income. In the last year SpyBot has been growing exponentially throughout the internet because of the quality of work it does. Thousands of reviewed and recognitions have been given to SpyBot for it's outstanding work in keeping our computers clean.


The program offers various features that are all free, including constant updates, scanning, "immunizing" and various other nifty things. A big upside is that SpyBot also provides backing up before any changes are made to impress a failsafe feeling. Personally I have used SpyBot for a very long time, it is a great program that finds almost if not as much as programs that you have to pay for. SpyBot even managed to clean out over one thousand malware problems on my friends computer saving it from the landfill. Okay, so obviously this is some quality free stuff, but let's talk about the features. As mentioned, the updates are usually around at least once a day, and give an option on where you download them from--even though they are small and take little time after your first update. The scanning can be described as not being the fastest, but very efficient and describes what each malicious program does and the risk level.

Finally, Spybot offers a continual protection called "Immunize." This feature protects you from most malicious software from being downloaded on your computer from just visiting websites. Protecting you from cookies, pop ups, and anything else that would try to install without your permission. Immunizing acts like a mini virus fish net protecting your computer from all forms of spyware trying to get through. This program is simple to use, has a great interface needing no guide on how to take advantage of it. To be honest I am surprised you are still reading this article and not downloading the great program to test for yourself ;).

Cyber Bully

I thought that this was a great write-up on Internet interaction between webbers. The article talks about how people cause stress safely from in front of the computer screen. Which goes in depth about vandals who use e-mails, games, blogs, forums and more to terrorize people. The author, Erin Biba from PC world, includes stories with that of suicide and harassment in rarely heard-of forms. Erin interestingly talks about how the real "us" comes out when we can do whatever we want without being caught;being able to cause torment without having to look the victim in the eyes.

Check it out here

Speed Up Your Windows Start Up

MSCONFIG, sounds like a complicated word used only by geeks, standing for Microsoft System Configuration Utility. That may be so, but it can also be easily used to your advantage too. Msconfig is a program that manages the programs in Window's start up, found in most versions of the Windows operating systems beyond 98. Before this, or in some occasions during this version, programs also used a folder named "start up" located deep within your hard drive to tell the computer to start when windows was loaded. More experienced users even use the "Registry Editor" to edit Start up, which I will write a guide on using later. Since msconfig is the most frequently used, let's look at Microsoft's lifesaver. If you are interested in the location of this start up folder, i have provided it's location in each operating system at the bottom of this post. You can remove anything you want in this folder, because none of these programs are associated internally with windows!

What does "managing windows start up" mean to you? A lot, this means that you will be able to get rid of some of the things that load on your computer when you log in that cause you to have to sit there and stare. If your computer seems to torture you endlessly by loading one program slowly at a time denying entertainment, heres a great solution. NOTE: You may need to be logged on as administrator, especially in Windows Vista (which may prompt for a password,) if possible have this information ready or be logged onto an admin account before proceeding.

How do we even start this program? Simple. If you are using Windows XP or earlier, click start and then click Run and type in "msconfig" click Ok. If you are using Windows Vista, go to start and in the search menu type in "msconfig", and click on the option that appears. The program should appear on screen and look similar to one of these two pictures, depending on your Windows Operating System.














There will be alot of options and words that aren't of our concern right now, for either version, click on Startup. Heres where its a little tricky, NOTE: IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT OF DISABLING ANYTHING, DO NOT DO IT, OR AT LEAST GOOGLE IT OR LOOK AT THE LINK BELOW! Some things could be important to Windows Start up and mess things up, although VERY unlikely. So first let's clear up some fog here before we adjust anything. Everything in this list is simply what starts up either at convenience to you, or it is necessary. For example: something at convenience would be AIM starting up on start up, or CD Burning Software. Unchecking these options in msconfig will not cause any problems, simply because all you are doing is removing the program from starting automatically when we don't want them to. They will load fine if you click on them later ;), I promise.

On the other hand, there are necessary programs. These are the programs that make up our Windows OS. For Vista, these programs probably won't even appear, and if you just glanced at the other tabs in the program on Vista, theres even an option to hide these programs labeled "Hide Windows Services." As you probably guessed, Windows Services are the programs that make up windows. In Windows XP and earlier versions, we aren't so lucky to have these options hidden from us already. So you must be somewhat careful, only removing the obvious even though very few that will probably show themselves allowing to be unchecked in your list. If your in too much doubt about which one is which, check out a great site with a library of processes here. This website includes the author of the program your searching for and whether or not it's even a virus. Either use the hotkey "ctrl+f" to find your process, or use the processes finder located on the right of the page.

Finally let's make our adjustments. This is quick and easy, because as I said before, to stop something from loading at startup, just uncheck it. Carefully make a mental note on everything you have unchecked and make sure you are sure about what you've done, and click apply then ok. You will be provided with a prompt asking to restart, save anything important and restart. When you restart, you will notice that these programs aren't starting up, and depending on how much you have installed, your boot up speed could easily double. Going from an annoying headache that subliminally tells you not to restart your computer because of the long wait, to 35 seconds from start to finish or even less!


Location of the Start Up Folder
(Note: May be in your normal Start Menu, check there first)
These Paths are assuming that Windows is located on your C drive.

Win9x/98/Me - C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
WinNT/2K - C:\Winnt\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
WinXP - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Bandwith Speed Test

If you want to check out how fast your internet connection is, click here. This free test is relatively simple and quick. Enter your area code, type of connection, and click Go. The test for most bandwidth users should take >10 seconds and give you a precise connection speed. Pretty simple and quick to see if your connection is anywhere what it should be and to possibly troubleshoot.

CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008

Looking for a upper class program to protect your computer? Computer Associates (CA) may be able to help you out, for about $70.00. I have tested Internet Security Suite Plus 2008 bundle that CA offers, to get a feel for all of the programs they offer. The Security Suite comes with Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Firewall,Anti-Spam, Anti-Phishing (my favorite tool ;),) and a $10,000 "coverage plan" to protect you from the world. Certainly all these features are more than enough for most users.

The entire program installed very smoothly being the only form of protection this computer would receive. Once installed, one may be surprised at the speed that your computer will load even with this program protecting every piece of information. CA loads effortlessly along with other start up programs causing seemingly no delay. Right-clicking on the CA icon next to the clock will bring up a menu with options to update, turn off various features for sets amount of time, or to bring up the home menu. The home menu is very user friendly making sure to notify you of any vulnerabilities such as old updates. From here you can access the Firewall, Anti-Virus,Anti-Spyware, and Spam features. Upon start up if you use software for your e-mail rather than the web you may notice that it will integrate with your e-mail program such as Outlook Express when you open it. CA will guide you through this and is very simple and effective as another spam filter.

CA's Firewall is great for anything you want a firewall to do. Offering to block, allow, or force programs to ask for permission to do anything, very similar to various competitor firewalls like Zone Alarm. CA will also allow you to change default settings and various levels of security involving cookies and protecting private information; all which be changed, or shut off. The entire firewall can be shut off just like all other sections of the Suite for whatever reason you may need to do so. The Anti-Virus software is on the slightly above average level. Usually constantly updating itself, has the same scan options as most Anti-Virus programs. The protection itself is a 3.5 out of 5 because it seemed to miss a few viruses on my computer until it had to do a full system scan to clean them. These malicious programs weren't detected a month ago. This should be watched for because all the components combined, should in theory stop everything from getting in let alone install on your computer. Which would make the scan options good for scanning unopened or compressed files.

The spyware protection is excellent, keeping out all malicious spyware programs for over a month now. The scan is pretty short and sweet, and cleaned out the infections that were already on the computer easily. Similar to the Anti-Virus, the spyware definition list is updated constantly, behaving like Panda's programs with updates sometimes more than 5 times a day. Overall the program is great, having little weight on your computers speed while protecting everything a computer user would need protected. The license covers installment for three users, more than likely enough for a household.

Only one issue that is somewhat annoying with the Spam program is that some compressed files will have their extensions edited into .EFWs. This is some kind of form of e-mail attachment, and files such as .RARs may be compressed or downloaded into this format automatically. Luckily this is merely just annoying, because now you will just have to right click these files and select "Open With" and pick your decompression program like Win RAR or WinZIP. This is a slightly common problem, and I am sure it won't take too long to be addressed. CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008 receives a 9 out 10 for great protection and limited problems. I encourage those who use the computer frequently for business purposes, or store important information on their computer to purchase this program. CA will hardly slow anything down on your computer even for users with 512 mb of RAM. They will even pay liability if anything somehow does manage to get across your computer and wreak havoc, which is a nice way of saying "we've got your back".

Click here to view CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2008

Internet Explorer vs Firefox

Which browses faster? Which loads faster? Which one is all around better? Three defining questions to compare the two most popular web browsers asked by most internet users. Both have been around for quiet some time. Internet Explorer can be found default on all Windows OS's. But is Internet Explorer really any better? Sure it is made by the same company that made the operating system the majority of the world uses, but is it really better? Firefox has been growing exponentially for a long time over the last year or two. Some claim that Firefox is even more secure, even when put up against the latest IE(Internet Explorer.) Statistics show that Firefox is now the most popularly used web browser on the Internet. This is within the past 6 months though, with Firefox passing IE6 late in 2007.

IE7 comes with "Phishing Protection" and some other pretty small features. Compared to Firefox that is installed clean by default with almost no add-ons or features, but a great assortment are listed at Firefox.com and can be downloaded and applied. When you think about it, this is almost ideal for most users. Personally I find no use for the phishing filter in IE, and have found it only slows down the explorer overall. Phishing is when a website masks or pretends to be another website to obtain your personal information. Phishing has caused a phenomenal amount of problems, but can be avoided with common sense. The internet explorer filter does a great job of warning you of these websites, but they commonly fool only those who are gullible. If you find yourself like me, you will probably end up shutting off the filter to boost the loading speed of the browser entirely.

Put the two explorers side by side, and Firefox as a program will load faster than Internet Explorer. Firefox is purposely designed to be stripped of the commodities that are all strapped on by default to Internet Explorer. Firefox is also much more malleable to change settings to your desire as opposed to Internet Explorer, as you will notice in our Tweak section. Firefox is like that 1970s car that you could fix and change yourself. While Internet Explorer is a modern car, getting so advanced to try to stay ahead of the changing internet that most things are done for you automatically and bring it down. Sure for the most part most users wont change many settings when using these browsers, but for those who's computers don't have a big payload of RAM, like mine ;), Firefox is for sure a faster way to go when comparing the toll on your RAM. If your looking for the simple speed of web browsing, many will argue both ways. I personally would say, if you have more than enough RAM that your computer can act on the information it receives very quickly, Internet Explorer will load browsing pages faster.

Overall, Firefox is a great browser for all users, especially those without the highest quality computers. Being so efficient on all platforms accounts for alot of Firefox's popularity. Internet Explorer, especially version 7, I would recommend more for the middle class to higher end computers only, because it will browse faster in many cases. Also, sometimes Firefox will have problems loading certain java scripts, but this is very rare. Both IE and Firefox's browsing speed is very close and you probably wouldn't notice that great of a difference; unless your computer is noticeably slow in which case more than likely Firefox would be quite faster both loading and browsing. Firefox wins the only determinable competition; lowest impact on your computer while loaded. I go with Firefox for that reason, because the majority of internet users are a few steps behind the most modern computers out there. Remember my example, if you want that cool 70s car that can be twisted for your liking, Firefox. For those looking for a sleek modern design like a Lexus 08 able to handle every possible thing that comes at it, with a small compramise in memory usage, Internet Explorer.

Surveys=Money

Surveys? What do money and surveys have in common? Okay, so we have all of these enormous corporations in our economy that are scouting for information or traffic. Each company either pushes to get people on the internet to view their product, or take in information. Commonly they do this by surveys, or paying third party websites to get the traffic for them. You my have encountered these surveys on any website with an ad asking you to take a survey. Well to use the all too frequently used saying --what you probably don't know is-- websites will share some of these advertising profits with you if you specifically do these surveys. It's all apart of the world of affiliating, where one company will basically scratch the back of another company if that company does so in return. This may sound confusing, but actually it's not hard at all.

Affiliation Programs

As the trend grows, there are many websites out there setting up programs with companies to advertise for them for a small fee. Essentially there are many variations of Affiliating-- ads, text links, basically any form of one websites being paid by another to direct traffic a certain way. The type of programs I will talk about today, are the ones that allow you to participate in the circulation of money by doing these surveys and getting paid. So basically the company will receive YOUR survey, opinion, or simply eyes. While they pay this special website for directing you to them, and a percent of the money the website receives will be attributed to you for viewing their product.

Yes, somewhat confusing but its actually simple. Half the time the pure traffic is all they are looking for, and these companies are even presenting surveys for other companies! There is a huge chain of money that circulates beginning with simply what a user is looking at and how he or she got there. A lot of the time the money is attributed to whatever site lead them to the current site they are on. Let's start with an example of a company that informs you they will pay you to do what their affiliated companies want. Personally, I have tired a few of these sites, I would look for reviews first before you do any survey as many of them ARE scams. But for the most part they are simple to do and 90% free for the legit sites. The best way to check if they are scams or not is to see if they have an active forum, and browse around in there. Later on I plan on reviewing some of them to help you out. For now, let's talk about a company named Cashcrate.

Cashcrate

Cashcrate is the link in the chain between you and their affiliated companies, Cashcrate is the website that is willing to pay you to view their affiliated companies websites. So how does it all work? Well first you sign up, you don't need a credit card or anything. Just a real name that a real check can be signed to, and an address for that nice real check to be sent to. I personally have been doing cashcrate for awhile and have earned about 200 dollars in my spare time. Depending on your dedication which will determine your profit, you can make much more than that, as I am just looking to review this website. Anyway, you signed up and you managed to navigate to their offers page. On this page is an organized list of all their affiliation links that they want you to visit. Next to it is usually a price that they will pay you for your visit to their affiliated company. Click on the link that they provide, completely the offer in whichever manner required and you are done. Maybe an hour or so, possibly longer, they will attribute the money to you for completing what the company required them to have you do. This can range from 20 cents to 5 dollars or more depending on what you had to do. What must happen is that the company verifies you did everything, then sends that confirmation to cashcrate, and they attribute a percent of their profit.

It's pretty straight forward and doesn't really take a whole lot of time to do -- especially if you get used to it. As mentioned before, there are factors that will determine your income on these websites. Most of them follow the same structure. And will add more money for the surveys that require more personal information like a credit card. These companies even offer methods in which they will pay you for signing people up to their site by you signing them up under your "referral link." As you probably noticed, yet another link is created in the chain, now you are the one getting paid to refer people to their site. That is how the affiliation world online essentially works, and there are many many more links in other cases. These websites even share a profit of which they get from these users you signed up with you too, so the more active in recruiting you are, the more money you will get. Look later on for my reviews of a few other of these websites because you might want to put your cards in a few of these, targeting the higher payout ads for each one.

Everything comes down to a little time and determination to follow along with these websites. Bottom line is that they WILL pay you and that you do not have to pay any money for essentially anything. This method is nothing you can live off of but certainly, with some effort, a sizable amount of pocket change.

Speed Up Webpage Loading in IE and Firefox

Wishing the top web browsers would receive a tune up from Microsoft or Mozilla? Try this tweak you can do yourself. Version is irrelevant for Firefox as these modifications work with the versions that have been out for a couple years. These modifications are pretty popular, and can be seen throughout the internet. They specifically involve modifying the "internet" part of the programs, not so much the physical memory that it takes from your computer. Simply put, these little tricks will load web pages faster, but wont load the programs themselves any faster. Before each modification, I will describe what is being done just so you get an idea of what you are doing. These tweaks will not cause harm to your computer.

Firefox

Lets start with the up roaring favorite, Firefox. This first step will change the amount of requests sent for a web page. Essentially this is set somewhat low to begin with, to help the website the user will be viewing. If your browser requests the web page like this it will take slightly more bandwidth from the page, for your benefit, these modifications ARE NOT ILLEGAL, so there is no reason to worry about any of this.

1. Open your Firefox browser.
2. In the browser bar, or where the http and www. goes, type about:config and hit enter or make it load as if it was a web page.
3. In the filter bar, type "pipe" and let it search for anything that matches this word.
4. Three results should appear and make the appropriate change per entry
network.http.pipelining -- Right click the "False" and click "Toggle" in the drop down menu so that the value becomes true.
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests -- Right click on the number and click "Modify", then enter an appropriate number, I suggest 35.
network.http.proxy.pipelining -- Right click the "False" and click "Toggle" in the drop down menu so that the value becomes true.

And your done! This tweak will be most noticeable to broadband users, but has a great impact on all internet users.

Our second tweak involves the same field of stuff as the first. Once again,
1. Open your Firefox browser.
2. In the browser bar, or where the http and www. goes, type about:config and hit enter or make it load as if it was a web page.
3. Right click anywhere under the "preference name" tab, and highlight New in the drop down, and select integer.
4. For the name, enter "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" without the quotes.
5. It should then ask for a value, put 0.

What this will do, is change the amount of time the information recieved is processed. It is like changing the amount of time your mailman takes to give you the letter for you to open, the shorter the wait, the faster he delivers.

Internet Explorer

Now, for Internet Explorer. This specific tweak has ONLY been tested for Internet Explorer 7, so although it most likely will not damage any earlier versions, I recommend ONLY using this if you have Internet Explorer 7.

1. Open your basic Notepad.
2. Enter this code

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]
“MaxConnectionsPerServer”=dword:00000010
“MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server”=dword:0000010

3. Go to save as, and save this as IEtweak.REG make sure it is .REG at the end, this tells the computer that it is designed to change a setting in the registry. Save this to your desktop. The picture should become something resembling a blue block, but it may vary depending on your OS.
4. Double click this file, and a message should prompt you by default confirming the changes, accept them, and you are done.

What this will do is similar to the first Firefox tweak, edit the connection limit to a sizable amount as compared to the default 2. Remember, this tweak will not speed up the program itself, but rather the web pages it loads. All of these tweaks modify the same basic limits set by default to avoid miscellaneous things. Again, none of these are illegal and they will ONLY affect the speed of the web pages loaded. In the future I will add a list of tweaks and modifications that will allow the programs themselves to load faster. Which of course we all know is really only needed for IE anyway ;).

First Blog

So today I have joined the community of bloggers. I have heard about it, and its recently uprising in the virtual world, so I have decided to create my own and test it's success. My blog will most likely consist of the abundant programs and encounters I have had with what the internet has to offer. Occasionally I will probably post things relating to either my life or things pertaining to the real world-- but I hope to focus on the internet. I would rather not set things in stone as of now. Hopefully I can develop a good habit of very lucrative writing, but I'm sure this comes with time.

Tomorrow I will write my first blog on whatever I decide on, theres thousands of candidates, just a matter of choosing which will be first. Of which I hope will be a long history of writing. Hello all, my name is Nick and I am now also a blogger.