Asad Ahmed

Asad is a Permanent Author at AddictiveTips !

How To Resize, Extend, And Shrink Partition In Windows 7 / Vista

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Prior to Windows 7 andVista, the ability to shrink and extend disk volumes has only been available through third party tools, although not as feature rich as some third party partition management applications available, Windows Disk Management console allow users to shrink, extend, create, and format partitions. You can shrink a single partition with unused space, and then create a new partition in the resulting free space, as well as extending a current partition if there is available free space after it. Read on to find out how to resize a partition in Windows 7 / Vista. Read More

How To Restart Explorer.exe Process Properly In Windows 7, Vista, XP

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Do you usually restart your computer for registry changes to take place? Or restart explorer.exe process using task manager? This method maybe effective but it is like forcibly killing the process instead of terminating it properly, however there is a hidden option in Windows 7 / Vista Start Menu and an extra function in Shutdown menu of Windows XP that allows you to terminate and restart Explorer.exe properly. Follow these steps to get that option visible and properly terminate Explorer.exe. Read More

How To Enable/Disable Fast User Switching In Windows 7, Vista, XP

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A single computer is often shared between multiple users, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 makes it easier for users to share a computer using the Fast User Switching feature enabled, it allows more than one user to log on simultaneously at a single computer, for example, if you are currently logged onto a computer, another user can log on to watch movies, without you having to close your open programs and log off. Once the user is finished, you can return to your session where all your programs will still be running. Read More

Use Task Scheduler To Tweak Automatic Disk Defragmentation In Windows 7/Vista

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With Windows 7 / Vista many standard applications such as Windows Firewall got a face lift, the Disk Defragmenter interface changed to a dialog box with an added task scheduler support to schedule defragmentation of your hard drive. Since now it works on scheduled time, it automatically starts defragmenting as soon as the scheduled time is missed, which can cause disk thrashing and computer to slow down. Instead of letting Windows 7 /  Vista to decide when to start defragmentation you should decide when and how it should run. Read More

2 Simple Ways To Create System Restore Point In Windows 7 / Vista

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Did you ever regret installing a driver or an application and wished to turn back settings as they previously were? No matter how careful you are, when it comes to installing new drivers in Windows 7 / Vista there are just going to be times when you need to perform a system restore to safeguard against any problems which may arise due to the program or the device driver. Creating a system restore point allows your computer to be returned to the healthy, functioning state it was in just prior to the installation. Read More

How To Open Elevated Command Prompt With Administrator Privileges In Windows 7 / Vista

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There is a security feature in Windows 7 / Vista that comes with User Access Control (UAC) which means processes are launched in restricted mode unless users specifically accept the elevation confirmation. For example running a regsvr32.exe command which is used to register DLL/ActiveX or opening a batch file or script requiring administrative privileges require you to open an elevated Command Prompt. Elevated Command Prompt always run under administrative privileges so users need to launch command prompt will full admin rights and permission state. Here are a few ways to open elevated command prompt. Read More

How To Manage And Launch Shortcuts Quickly Using Microsoft Speed Launch

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Do you have hundreds of applications installed, with even hundreds of icons spread all over your computer? It is hard sometimes to find the shortcut of a program when they are all cluttered up on ever single place on the computer. This is where Microsoft’s Speed Launch comes in(It requires .Net Framework 3.0). Start menu search in Windows Vista does help sometimes but Speed Launch even lets you assign multiple applications or websites to launch with a single click.

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How To Clean Up The Context Menu In Internet Explorer 8

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Does your Internet Explorer 8 Right Click menu get cluttered by installing new programs or accelerators? The right-click menu in Internet Explorer may get cluttered up when you install download managers, toolbars and other browser utilities, the items that you rarely use can be disabled so that the right-click menu in Internet Explorer looks clean. Read More

How To Compress And Password Protect Files In Windows XP

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Do you want to encrypt your files without installing a third party application? Windows XP has a native support for file compression and decompression formally known as Compress Files and Folders which is a basic feature that allows us to zip files of any format so that  Windows Explorer is able to open these files without any need of third party applications. Besides the compression and decompression, it also allows us to password protect those files. In Windows Explorer the zip files are treated as any other normal folder allowing you to drag and drop new files or copy the content.

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How To Disable Delete Confirmation Dialog Box In Windows 7 / Vista

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Are you annoyed by the delete confirmation dialog box that pops up whenever you want to move a file to recycle bin? It is a good thing to keep this feature enabled but there are several occasions where it becomes annoying when you want to delete lots of files and this dialog box appears every time. There is a simple way to disable this confirmation box whenever files are moved to recycle bin but it is recommended to keep it enabled so that you don't delete a potentially important file without confirmation. Read More

How To Enable Add/Remove Programs When Disabled By A Virus

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Are you facing trouble opening Add/Remove Programs from your Control Panel? Does it give you the error saying that it has been disabled by administrator? Some days back we covered a post on How to enable show hidden files and folders when disabled by a virus, the problem of Disabled Add/Remove program is also a registry tweak caused by some virus and is quite frustrating for those who wants to uninstall a software but this dialogue box won’t just open up. This problem has a pretty easy solution.

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How To Increase Your Network Speed Or Internet Speed By Over 20%

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If you use Windows than it is possible to squeeze extra speed from your internet connection. By default, Windows reserve internet bandwidth up to 20% for various services such as Windows updates  and spyware checks by using QoS Packet Scheduler, it is a network bandwidth management tool that can monitor the importance of data packets and depending upon the priority of the packet, give it higher or lower priority or bandwidth levels. It's not very useful unless you're using apps which are QoS-aware or running a server, so you can gain some network overhead back by turning it off.

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How To Prevent Firefox From Displaying Bookmarks And Web History As Suggestions In The Address Bar

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Does this annoy you that Firefox displays bookmarks in its address bar along with web history? Firefox is certainly the best browser in the market but it doesn’t mean its perfect, the annoying feature of its awesome bar is that it displays the bookmarks in its address bar along with web history and suggestions. Most of the users prefer to display only links from the web history rather than the added bookmarks suggestions. To prevent this annoying feature, follow these simple steps.

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How To Start Firefox and Internet Explorer Without Add-ons

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Did your browser become unstable due to a recent installation of some add-on? Sometimes when we install an add-on, it may become the root cause of crashing or slowing down of the web browser. In this situation it is better to use your browser without the add-ons. By doing this you can find out if the problem and fix it easily, or just simply remove the add-on that was causing the problem. If you are a security freak like me, you can run your browser without add-ons while making online transactions because any 3rd party add-ons could be tracking your activity.

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How To Protect USB Drive From Virus When Attached To Infected Computer

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Have you ever attached a USB to a computer and later found out that the drive is infected by a virus? I have definitely faced this situation many times. If you attach your USB drive to the infected computer the virus is transferred to the drive in no time infecting all the important documents in USB drive too, depending on the nature of the virus you may loose important data from the USB drive and never recover them back. But there is a solution to protect your USB drive from virus infection when it is connected to already infected computer.

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How To Minimize Applications To Desktop As Thumbnails

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If you are a multitasking monster, most of your time may surf on finding the right tab in the taskbar, because when you do multitask a lot you have more tabs in the taskbar which makes it cluttered and unorganized, even with Windows Group Similar taskbar items option, it takes time to find the right tab, there are some applications like utorrent which can be configured to move to tray bar rather than taskbar, the other solution for this is to minimize the applications as thumbnails onto the desktop.

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5 Free Online Services For Making Conference Calls – Start Calling Now !

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Have you ever thought of saving time and money by replacing meetings with teleconferencing services? These are the services through which enterpretuers can control every operation of the business spread all over the globe and it can be a valuable alternative when geography and logistics make it impossible for all the participants to be in the same room. Setting up conference call services is the most effective way to arrange a trans-continental business meeting. Or you can call your friends if you are too lazy. ;) Read More

How To Recover Important System Files Without Reinstalling Windows

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Have you ever faced a problem where your antivirus deleted your important system files? For me this is even worse than the adverse effect of a virus itself. The best method to offset the infection is to Clean, Quarantine and Delete but if your antivirus deletes important system files by itself without asking permission than you must consider to recover those system files to prevent data loss, performance issues and missing system files notification at startup.

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How To Check Your Hard Drive For Errors And Fix It

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If you are experiencing hard drive errors such as Read / Write errors and noisy sounds, its time to check your hard drive because these errors may effect the overall performance of your computer. Windows comes with built-in utilities to check hard drives, scanning your hard drive using Error Checking can help diagnose and even correct a wide range of hard drive errors. Hard drives that are formatted using the FAT32 file system should be checked for errors about once a month.

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