This is Part 2 of Speeding Up Shutdown Times. This time around instead of messing with the registry as we did last time, we are simply going to install a utility that Microsoft released in response to slow shutdown times. You just need to install the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service, which, “…helps to ensure…Continue Reading

One of my biggest problems at the end of the day is shutting down my laptop…it takes way too long to shut down. I’ve gotten it to where it’s fast booting up, but the shutdown times sometimes exceed a couple of minutes. This of course is very ‘painful’ when I’m trying to run out of…Continue Reading

I hate it when I’m working on my computer with all my winodows open, I just found an awesome website, I started my music, I got everything the way I want it and all of a sudden out of nowhere I get a notification telling me that all of my updates have been downloaded/installed and…Continue Reading

The Windows Registry allows you to make changes to every aspect of your computer. Of course you have to be somewhat knowledgeable when edititing the registry, inherently the registry’s ability to change anything on your computer can also spell disaster if you mess up. Below you’ll find a description of what the registry is and…Continue Reading

I use Photoshop for everything that involves picture manipulation, I even use photoshop to resize images, I have macro’s (actions) set up so that I can automate the process. I do find however that it would be much nicer just to right-click a picture, hit resize and I’m done. I found that one of Microsoft’s…Continue Reading

I really recommend enabling Clear Type on your Windows XP machine, it will make it a lot easier to read on your screen due to the fact that the quality of the text displayed increases. If you have no idea what clear type is then read on. "ClearType is a registered trademark for a technology…Continue Reading

I have run into computers that do not have the Sound control icon enabled by default. Now this can be annoying if you have no other way of easily lowering or increasing your volume. Since I’ve been confronted with this question in the past, I’ve created this short how-to that details the steps necessary to…Continue Reading

Scrap files allow you to transfer selected data from on program to the other. Let’s say there is an address that I would like to save for later use in a Word document I’m currently working on. Instead of creating another word document, I can simply hihglight the text (in this case the address) and…Continue Reading

I must admit that sometimes I can be rather lazy…lazy to the point that I wont go to the start menu to shut off my computer, I rather have a button on my desktop that is always accesible that allows me to turn of my computer the minute I double-click it. Below you will find…Continue Reading

If you have a valid Windows XP installation you can download Microsoft’s shared Computer Toolkit. The toolkit allows you to control restrictions and other settings on your computer. The toolkit is aimed public computers (school computers, libraries, Internet Cafe’s, etc), but in my experience it can also be used at home. If you have one…Continue Reading

At work all of our computers have designated network drives that are used by numerous applications that require connections to them. I found that whenever I plugged in my memory key, it used a drive letter which was already occupied by a network drive. The result was that the network key was unaccesible, but dont…Continue Reading

I have a ton of pictures on my computer and normally use Picassa to manage them, however when I simply want to view them through explorer I find that the thumbnail size generated by windows is not large enough. I set on a mission to find out how to change this setting. It turns out…Continue Reading

I am constantly deleting old files that I no longer use or need, but find myself always having to click twice to delete the file. If the delete confirmation box is an annoyance to you as it is to me then this little how-to will demonstrate how to disable it. Remember if you delete something…Continue Reading