Digital Quest » Tips & Tricks

Automatically add shortcuts to your removable media on the desktop

Suresh — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:02:53 +0000

Usually when you insert a USB flash drive into your computer, Windows asks you ‘What do you want Windows to do?’. But it asks only at the time of insertion. Once you close the window and later, if you want to access the drive, you need to navigate through either My Computer of Windows Explorer.

(more…)

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Freewares, Productivity Tips, Softwares, Utilities.

Speed up Firefox 3.0 in a flash with Firetune

Suresh — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:48:01 +0000

Firefox 3.0 is surely faster than its previous version. And with a little tweaking and optimization Firefox 3.0 can be made to perform even faster than it does out of the box.

One way is to do the tweaking manually by accessing about:config and editing the parameters. Editing the configuration manually may not be everybody’s cup of tea. But there is a much easier and quicker way of doing the same: Firetune. Firetune is a free tool that will optimize several internal settings of Firefox for better performance according to your specific computer speed and Internet connection speed. Firetune works with all versions of Firefox, even the latest Firefox 3.0.

(more…)

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Browsers Tricks, Internet.

How to enter special characters not available on your keyboard

Suresh — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:21:35 +0000

Suppose you have to type out characters like ®, ©, £ etc or for that matter any character which has no key on a keyboard to directly enter them. How do you do that?

Characters like ®, © etc are called special characters. In Windows, each special character is associated with a 4 digit numeric number, which when entered while holding down the ALT key will display the character. For example, the code for the character ® is 0174. So to enter ®, hold down the Alt key and press the numbers 0174. Do remember that the 4 digit number must be entered using your numeric 10 key pad on your keyboard! Similarly to enter the copyright symbol, © the code is Alt+0169.

(more…)

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Tips & Tricks, Windows.

Firefox 3 location bar is truly awesome

Suresh — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:58:51 +0000

If you are a Firefox user, then most probably you have updated to Firefox 3 by now. Apart from being faster, leaner and better looking than the previous version, Firefox 3 has some great new features built into it, one of which is the smarter address bar.

One of the most used area in a browser is the Address Bar or the Location Bar, as Firefox calls it. Functionally, the new Location Bar in Firefox 3 is pretty smart and has been dubbed as the Awesomebar.

(more…)

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Browsers Tricks.

How to shutdown Windows almost instantly

Suresh — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:12:10 +0000

How often have you been frustrated by the ’speed’ with which Windows shuts down. It seems to take ages, especially when you are in a hurry.

If you normally shut down Windows from the ‘Turn Off Computer‘ on the Start menu, then here is an alternative that works almost like magic.

(more…)

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Tips & Tricks, Windows, Windows XP.

Recover wasted disk space by reducing Recycle Bin storage space

Suresh — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:14:59 +0000

By default, Windows reserves a whopping 10% of each drive volume for storing files you’ve deleted. But how often do you really need to recover a 50GB file from the Recycle Bin?

Most of the time all those extra space reserved for the recycle bin goes wasted. For example, for a 500GB drive, the default space allocated would be 50GB (10%). You would hardly ever need that kind of size for the Recycle Bin. To prevent wastage, you can reduce the space allocated for recycle bin to whatever amount you think is right. Here is how to do it.

(more…)

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Productivity Tips, Windows XP.

How to open the last/recently closed tabs in IE7

Suresh — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:32:34 +0000

If you have accidentally closed a tab in Internet Explorer 7, you will have realised there is no way to get it back as with the Firefox or Opera browsers. However, there is a free add-on for Internet Explorer called IE7 Open Last Closed Tab that does just this.

(more…)

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Browsers Tricks, Internet.

How to create an Admin account from a guest account in Windows XP

Suresh — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:32:35 +0000

First, let me make it clear that this post is only meant to be informative. Please do not misuse it. On the other hand, if you are an administrator, then this post could be useful to you in being wary of how your system could be compromised with a very simple trick.

Now here is how you do it.

(more…)

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Security, Tips & Tricks, Windows.

Copy Handler - Copy and Move files faster and smarter

Suresh — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:27:21 +0000

Copy Handler is a free tool designed to copy/move files and folders between different storage media. Copy Handler speeds up copying data at rates up to 6-7 times faster than standard MS Windows copying (when copying data from one partition to another on the same physical hard disk).

(more…)

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Freewares, Productivity Tips, Windows XP.

How to add a Windows Shutdown shortcut on your Desktop

Suresh — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 03:37:44 +0000

Here is a simple trick to shutdown Windows quickly from a shortcut on your desktop rather than going through the Start menu.

Right-Click on the desktop and click ‘New‘ and then click on ‘Shortcut‘. When prompted to fill in ‘Type the location of the item‘, enter ‘shutdown -s -t 00‘ . Click Next and enter a name for the shortcut. You can now shutdown Windows through the shortcut. The -t flag lets you set the time lapse in seconds.

Changing the ‘-s‘ to ‘-r‘ will cause the shortcut to restart Windows instead of shutting down.

This may interest you: How to shutdown Windows almost instantly

Add to del.icio.us

Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Tips & Tricks, Windows XP.