We are Moving

Dear readers,
I am planning to move my blog from Blogger to a self hosted domain soon.
In life, there is always a need to move on to the next level. Blogging here was a great learning experience and I hope Blogging on the new domain
http://bthegeek.in   Be The Geek
will be equally fun and memorable.
Please visit the new blog  and stay ahead of your colleagues with the latest tips and tricks.
Admin,

Speed Up Firefox Browser

Firefox scores high when it comes to performance and speed.Firefox follows the internet standards by downloading, at the most, six files at a time. But with websites which have lot of Html and CSS codes and videos, almost all the browsers tend to consume time before assembling the web page and displaying it.  Here are a few tricks to speed up your Firefox . The number of downloads by Firefox can be changed easily.
1.Open Firefox.
2.In the address bar, type 'about:config', without the quotes and press enter.

Windows 7 Tips : How to disable balloon tips

In the Start Menu, if you hover your pointer over a program for a second , a little message is displayed in a fade  "balloon".  For programs that do not have this feature set up for their shortcut, the "balloon" just tells users where the program is located on their computer.This feature is useful for a beginning computer user. However, it can be another annoyance for more advanced users.
But you can always disable it, because you are an advanced user and not some newbie.
Here are the steps.

Windows 7 Tips : Hiding User folders.

In the Start Menu, user folders such as Documents, Music, Games etc are shown as links on the right side. These folders are created for each user and are customised to the usage pattern accordingly. For example, the music folder will show playlists that are created by the particular user. There is also a folder for each user, having the name of that user, which contains these folders within it.
Personally, I never use these links and have disabled them.
How to hide these shortcut links?

Windows 7 Tweaks: Using Group Policy Editor

I had earlier blogged about how you can modify the Group Policy Editor to customize windows 7. Continuing with that, this tweak will let you clear the recently used documents every time you shut down the pc.
This is an easy trick.
1. Open Group Policy Editor from the start menu by typing 'gpedit.msc'.
2.Navigate through User Configuration>Administrative Templates>Taskbar and Start Menu.
3.From the list, click on 'Clear history of recently used documents on exit.'. Right click and click on Edit.
4.Enable it and exit the Policy Editor.

Thus, all the documents in the Recent Items in the Start Menu will be purged on log off and so will be those in jump lists in the taskbar.

Ultimate List Of Essential Tweaks in Windows 7 :

This post is a recompilation of several posts I have published in the blog over the past few months.
1.How to Reduce Shut-Down Time in Windows 7.
This tweak will help in reducing the 'wait-to kill' time of the OS.
http://justhackitdude.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-reduce-shut-down-time-windows-7.html

2.Turn Off Aero Snap and add delay time in Aero Peek.
By disabling these graphics effects, you can increase the performance of your Windows 7 system.
http://justhackitdude.blogspot.com/2010/11/windows-7-registry-tweaks.html
 
3.Speed Up your Start Menu.
There is a delay time, which is 400 microseconds by default,after which the contents of the various menus are displayed when you scroll the Start Menu. With a simple tweak, this time delay can be   removed.

http://justhackitdude.blogspot.com/2010/10/speed-up-your-start-menu-windows.html

4.Specify Executable Files for Windows at the time of Winlogon.
This registry trick will help you to specify executable files to be executed by Winlogon. These files are executed by Windows at the time of Startup.

http://justhackitdude.blogspot.com/2010/10/executable-files-winlogon.html

Windows 7 Trick : Display message before user logon

Before the user logs in into his account, you can display a message by doing a simple tweak in the Local Security Policy editor. This message can be anything like a security message, or an information message or just a fun message like 'Have A Nice Day' or 'Happy Computing'.Open the Security Policy Editor by typing 'secpol.msc' in the Start Menu. Go through Local Policies and then Security Options. Now perform the following steps.

1.On the Right Hand side of the window locate the Interactive logon: Message title for users attempting to log on policy. Double click on it to edit it.

2.Under the Local Security Settings tab, type a title that you would like the users to see for the message, and   click OK. Next,
3. Locate the Interactive logon: Message text for users attempting to log on  policy. Right-click it and select Properties.
4. On the Local Security Settings tab, type your message and click OK.
5. Exit the Local Policy Editor and Reboot the machine to see the changes.

Using System Recovery in Windows 7

This post is in continuation with the previous post explaining how to tweak safely in Windows 7.
You can use the System recovery console in case your machine is in a state where it does not boot properly. The Windows Recovery Console can be started by using the hidden partition at the time of booting. This is done by pressing F8 repeatedly after POST(Power On Self Test) screen. It will start the Recovery Manager or Console.
It has many tools for recovery which are displayed in the window.
First is the Startup Repair which detects the problems that are occurring during startup and tries to fix them. Next is The System Restore which has been explained in the previous post.
Memory Diagnostic detects errors and inconsistencies in the memory sectors and in the hardware which might be causing the system to crash.
Then there is the Command Prompt which can be used effectively to restore the system.
In case there is no hidden partition in your system,windows recovery can be started by using the System Repair Disc, which can be created from any regular Windows machine.

Tweak Windows 7 Safely: Use System Restore

System Restore points are very important when it comes to tweaking, because anything could go wrong. Restore points allow you to undo the changes done by tweaking and revert back to previous state of the system.
How to Create Restore Points:
1.Click on Start. In the search bar, enter 'Create a Restore Point'.
2.This will open the System Protection tab in System Properties.

3.Click on 'Create' near the bottom of the window.
4.Enter a name('abcd',for example) for the Restore Point and click Next.
A System Restore point is created.


How to revert back to previous Restore Point:

How to Reduce Shut Down Time: Windows 7 tweak

This is a tweak with which you can reduce the time taken by your machine to shut down.
Now, the time taken by a machine to shut down depends, to a certain extent, on how fast it can stop the running processes. That is why it takes more time when a process is 'hanged' or is not responding.
This tweak will show you how to adjust the "Wait to Kill"  time, the time Windows 7 waits for programs to save data and close before shutting down.
STEPS:
In the start menu, type 'Run' or simply press win+R to open the Run option .
Open the Registry Editor by entering 'regedit'.
In the registry editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

Free Windows 7 tweaking software:

There are a few good software tools that can be used for tweaking windows 7 and for other system utilities.Among them is "ENHANCEMYSE7EN" which is free of cost.It also provides details of the processor, the motherboard, memory, the operating system, running processes etc. Many useful optimisations are provided. It occupies 8 MB of memory space. It can be downloaded from http://www.seriousbit.com/

Windows 7 Tips and Tricks : Remove Search Entries in Explorer

Removing unnecessary entries in the search bar.Windows remembers all the search terms entered in Explorer and offers these as selections while typing. With time this list can become too large and obtrusive. That is why you should delete this memory partially or completely.
There are two methods too remove this search entries. To remove individual entries, start typing the term in the search field, until it appears as a choice below it. Position the mouse pointer over it without clicking on the value and press the Delete key.
As this is tedious in case of many elements, you can completely delete the entries in the registry. For this, type ‘regedit’ in the search field of the start menu and press the Enter key.

How to adjust thumbnail size in Windows 7

Windows displays thumbnails of the opened windows in the taskbar if the mouse is hovering over it.
Unfortunately, the size is too small in case of high screen resolutions.A value in the registry regulates the size of the displayed thumbnails.
The size of the thumbnail preview can be changed as follows.
Enter ‘regedit’ in the input field of the start menu and press Enter.
Then confirm the request of the user account control with ‘Yes’ and navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband’ key.

Turn Off Windows Sounds : Windows Registry Tricks

Windows sounds or beeps are often annoying and can be turned off without turning off the other sounds. This can be achieved by a simple registry trick.
Open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound.
Click on Beep and set the value data to " No". 
Exit the Registry Editor.

User Accounts Control without blocking the desktop background in Windows 7

If a UAC window occurs, the operating system blurs the rest of the screen making it impossible to read important information.
To start the registry editor, write 'regedit' in the search field. Right click on regedit.exe and click on 'Run As Administrator'.
Navigate the tree structure in the following order.'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System.'
On the right hand side of the window,click on 'PromptOnSecureDesktop'. Double-click it and set the value
to 0. Confirm with OK and close the registry editor. The changes take place without rebooting the
system.