Asad | 5/8 | AddictiveTips

How To Change The Action Of Windows 7/Vista Power Button

by Asad on October 14, 2008

Windows

By default, when you click the Power button in the Start menu, it goes into Sleep mode. To turn off your Windows Vista system, you’ll have to click the arrow (next to the Power button), and select Shut Down in the drop-down list. If you find it tedious, you can change the Power button action in the Start menu to Shut down the system or place into Hibernate mode. Note: This guide was originally written for Windows Vista, but the same steps are applicable for Windows 7 as well. Read More

How To Increase The Browsing Speed Of Your Network’s Shared Folders

by Asad on October 14, 2008

Windows

Does your computer slow down when you browse your local area network and connect to other computers that are sharing data? One of the most common causes of this slowdown is a feature of Windows Explorer that looks for scheduled tasks on remote computers. This effort can take some time on some computers and can really slow down your browsing. The window with which you are browsing the network may appear to freeze momentarily, as the system is waiting for a response from the remote computer. Although this problem is a complex one, the solution is very simple.

How To Send Files To Your Friend’s Mobile Phone And Your Own Cell Phone Using Beam-it-up-Scotty.com

by Asad on October 13, 2008

Internet
Web

Beam-It-Up-Scotty.com is a site that allows users to send media content to your cell phone(or your friend’s cell phone) from your computer. In three easy steps you can download your favorite media content to your mobile phone or send files to your friend’s mobile phone. First you upload the file, then you compress it. Lastly you enter the cell phone information and then you are done. Most modern cell phones that support the 3gp format and the mp3 playback are also supported. You can compress the file after it has been uploaded to the system, which comes useful. A compressed file reduces downloading time and transfer costs.

How To Remove Nvidia Control Panel From Desktop Right Click Context Menu

by Asad on October 13, 2008

Windows

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Note: This post is for those who have Nvidia graphic card installed on their computer.

The "NVIDIA Control Panel" can be directly accessed from Start menu or Start Search menu in Windows Vista, generally its not used much often and doesn't;t require a separate item in the desktop context menu. If it annoys you then you probably didn't realize that it's easy to remove. For those who doesn’t know what we're talking about, see the screenshot after the jump, here's the menu item we're looking to remove.

How To Toggle Windows Vista Aero Effects On/Off With A Simple Right Click

by Asad on October 13, 2008

Windows

Windows Aero is a hardware-based premium visual experience or graphical user interface that is implemented in Windows Vista, which includes effects such as transparent glass design, subtle window animations, animated cursors, new window colors and eye candy. Aero is actually acronym for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open. Windows Vista’s Aero effects are quite pleasing but when you're trying to squeeze the last bit of power and life out of a battery, or just running some memory-hungry stuff, you don't always need them.

How To Use Windows Malicious Software Utility For Post Infection Removal On Windows 2000/XP/Vista

by Asad on October 12, 2008

Windows

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Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is basically a free tool which helps to remove specific malicious software from computers which run Windows operating systems, including all versions of Windows Vista. After it is installed, it silently runs in the background and removes the malicious software that it finds. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool generates a report describing the outcome of the scan. It’s actually a free but basic anti-virus, anti-worm and anti-Trojan security utility that provided by Microsoft to protect and secure Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 system by way of post infection removal.

How To Create Exceptions(Allow Programs And Ports) In Windows 7 / Vista Firewall

by Asad on October 12, 2008

Windows

The Windows 7 and Vista firewall blocks most of the ports and software from getting into your computer. There are a number of new features which make it a much more reliable solution which offers a decent protection level but sometimes you need to allow access to a port or program. While some exceptions are set up automatically by Windows 7 and Vista, others have to be configured manually, this guide will show you how to open a port or let a certain program through the firewall. Read More

How To Disable/Turn Off User Account Control (UAC) In Windows Vista

by Asad on October 11, 2008

Windows

UAC or User Access Control is a new feature of Windows Vista that is meant to enhance the security of your system. Each time an application is installed or whenever an important system change is made by the user or by a running process, the screen is blacked out and temporarily disabled and a dialog is shown with the choices to allow or deny the action. If the logged user is not an administrator, Windows Vista will also ask for the administrator password. While this helps keeping your system safer from threats, it can also be very annoying and sometimes confusing. UAC does clearly improves the security on Windows Vista, under some scenarios you might want to disable it, for example when giving demos in front of an audience. Some home users might be tempted to disable UAC because of the additional mouse clicking it brings into their system, however it is recommended not to immediately do so, and try to get used to it instead.

How To Enable ‘Show Hidden Files And Folders Option’ When Disabled By a Virus

by Asad on October 11, 2008

Windows

A few days back my “Show hidden files and folders” option was not working at all even if I selected the option Show hidden files and folders from the folder option window, the changes would just disappear upon closing the dialog. It was probably some virus attack after which the Windows registry was not being updated properly. So here is what I did to restore it back.

How To Split A Large File Into Several Small Files Using WinRar And HJSplit And How To Merge Them Back

by Asad on October 10, 2008

Windows

If you ever wanted to upload and share a 350 MB file with your friends using an online file sharing service but you want to upload the file in smaller chunks. How can you split a big file into multiple chunks and upload it to the file sharing service? WinRar and HJSplit are the best applications to not only split big files in to several chunks but also to compress them while splitting.

How To Increase Workspace Using Virtual Desktop Applications For Windows Vista/XP

by Asad on October 07, 2008

Windows

Editor’s Note: You will need a very powerful or at least semi powerful computer to run virtual desktop applications smoothly, and yes plenty of free disk space too.

Virtual desktops are useful in a way that they provide extra desk space to place your applications. You can easily move your Windows from one workspace to another and sort them according to their functionality and if you constantly find your desktop cluttered and overloaded with programs and browser windows then a virtual desktop manager might be the solution for you. Virtual desktops are handy if you want to keep different tasks and programs separated. They are quite common on Mac and Linux computers. It may take some time but once you get used to using them, they become an essential part of a productive workflow. So if you’re up for it, below are some of the better Windows desktop managers out there:

How To Change Displayed Date/Time Format In Windows XP And Vista

by Asad on October 05, 2008

Windows

People who use Windows may have noticed that the clock in the system tray displays time in the 24 hour format by default. I always prefer 12 hour format, if you want to know how to change it or if you simply want to get rid of AM and PM to save the space to stick in one more taskbar icon! Well, here is the solution. Read More

How To Disable/Turn off System Restore In Windows 7 / Vista / XP

by Asad on October 05, 2008

Windows

Whenever users install software program, drivers, updates, hotfixes and other system changing files, Windows Vista and Windows Xp creates a Restore Point by using System Restore, where a snapshot and stored state of important system files are backed up and copied, If anything goes wrong such as driver not working or program causes instability to the system, users can easily rollback to the previous state. If you pretty sure that you practice safe computing and can handle all disaster yourself, you can turn off and disable System Restore in Windows Vista and Windows Xp. Learn how to do it, after this jump. Read More

5 Web Applications That Can Easily Replace Your Desktop Applications

by Asad on October 04, 2008

There has been a long running debate about web applications replacing desktop applications. While some functions are better suited to web applications, it is my belief that security concerns and legacy systems will prevent desktop software from becoming obsolete. What actually defines a Web Application Vs a Desktop Application? A web application is an application delivered to users from a web server like the Internet. Some businesses run web apps on an intranet, as well. They are becoming more popular due to the widespread use of the web browser as a client. Here are my top 5 Web based applications that have replaced my desktop apps. Read More

How To Restore The Run Command In Windows Vista Or Windows XP

by Asad on October 01, 2008

Windows

When I first started using Vista I felt that Microsoft had done a great thing putting the Search bar instead of usual start menu in Windows Vista but it became one of my major hang-ups, they made it so that we could launch our favorite programs with just one click instead of two. I was quickly disappointed to find that when you type a word into the search bar it is nothing like the old Start > Run command bar window. It starts searching for the words you type in, and many times you need to wait...and wait...and wait some more.

How To Recover Data From Scratched Or Damaged Dvds/Cds

by Asad on September 30, 2008

One of my favorite TV shows is The office. I love that show but it also takes up a lot of the hard drive space, with each episode of 350MB. I clutter my hard drive space due to this show, and that’s just this one show, not including other shows like Grey’s Anatomy or Supernatural. So, naturally I burn the shows onto DVDs, as it’s a cheap and easily accessible way to store data. But the only problem is the fact that CDs or DVDs aren’t invulnerable to all types of damage, and in fact, even a small finger print or scratch can make a DVD/CD player not able to read the disk. If you try to copy/paste the file on the damaged disk onto a computer, you usually get an error saying the file is corrupted, or damaged. But I found some really handy programs that can solve such problems, which I thought I’d share with you all today. Read More

How To Transfer Music From iPhone/iPod Touch To Your PC

by Asad on September 29, 2008

iPhone/iPod Touch users will know that while it is easy to sync music from iTunes to your iPod, it certainly does not work the other way round. It may be a great security feature by Apple, but it has definitely caused lot of inconvenience to its users. Luckily, there are lots of easy way to get this done. Read More

How To Change The Default Location For Installing Applications

by Asad on September 29, 2008

Windows

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Windows uses the System Disk for installing any new applications, That is, if your Windows is installed on the C Drive, the default folder where all the applications you install would automatically show up as C:\Program Files , unless of course you change it manually while installing the application's locations. If you almost always prefer to NOT install on the System Disk, but instead on another partition, say, the D drive, then rather then changing the default location every time, you can change it just once,.

How To Find The IP Address Of The Sender In Windows Live Mail, Gmail Or Yahoo! Mail

by Asad on September 28, 2008

Internet
Web

Whenever you receive an email, you receive more than just the message. The email comes with headers that carry important information that can tell where the email was sent from and possibly who sent it. For that, you would need to find the IP address of the sender and this is how you do it.

How To Encrypt Your Data Easily

by Asad on September 27, 2008

Everyone has some private data that they don’t want other to see. It may be a document consisting of all your login passwords, your bank account information that you want to keep out of your family or some stalker’s sight. In case you are wondering how to encrypt the files/folders/entire hard drive and keep it safe from prying eyes, here is an easy method.