5 cool Windows XP tips

Straight from the pages of Windows XP Killer Tips, here are 5 cool tips that will save you time, change the way your desktop looks, or simply make you say, "I always wondered how to do that."

Try them yourself and then share them with your family and friends.

Stretching the taskbar

Sometimes your taskbar gets a little tight and cramped for room. When this happens, give it a stretch.

First, unlock your taskbar by right-clicking the taskbar, and then clicking Lock the Taskbar if it is selected (this will un-select it). Scroll your mouse over the top edge of the taskbar until you see the vertical resize cursor (arrow pointing up and down). Click, hold and drag the top of the taskbar up. Isn't that better? Once you find a place where you like it, you should re-select Lock the Taskbar.

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Adding a special character

There are probably one or two special characters that you use regularly (for example, ® and ©). It can be a real time-waster to open your Character Map every time you want to insert one of these symbols. So don't! Open the Character Map by clicking Start, clicking All Programs, and then clicking Accessories. Click System Tools, and then click Character Map. Click the © symbol. Notice that the bottom-right corner of the Character Map shows the keyboard shortcut used to insert the special character. Write it down for later use. When you want to insert that character, here's the trick: Position the cursor where you want to insert the special character, then with NUM LOCK key on, hold down the ALT key and use the number pad keys to type the character value.

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Open files with one click

It just makes sense that if you can do the same thing in Windows with a single click of the mouse that you can do with two clicks, you'd take the shorter route, right?

If you want to change your two clicks to one, click Start, click My Computer. Under the Tools menu, click Folder Options. Now click the General tab in the dialog box, click Single-click to open an item (point to select), and then click OK. This makes everything in Windows exactly one click faster.

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Change your pointer scheme

The first thing I do when I get a new computer is head straight for the cursors and change them. It's not that the default ones are bad; I've just been using the same ones forever and I'm not comfortable using anything else. If you want to change your pointer scheme, click Start, and then click Control Panel. In Category View (vs. Classic View) click on Printers and Other Hardware, and then click on Mouse. Click the Pointers tab and browse the available themes. Select the one that suits you best, and then click OK.

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Change the power button

I rarely ever shut down my computer; instead, I tend to put my system into stand by mode. Here's a clever way to speed up this task and make your computer's power button put your computer into stand by for you. Click Start and open the Control Panel. In Category View, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options. In the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Under Power Buttons, select Stand by in the When I press the power button on my computer area, and then click OK. Now, when you push your computer's power button, your system will immediately go to stand by.

Orkut: The new danger

Orkut: The new danger

Orkut, the online portal, owned by Google finds itself at the centre of debate. A nineteen-year-old student has been accused of making a fake account of a girl. Can we prevent the misuse of this technology by not posting our numbers and pictures?

ABHISHEK NEVER IMAGINED that the prank he played on his classmate would land him in jail. Abhishek, a management student and still in his teens, was arrested by the Thane police following a girl’s complaint about tarnishing her image in the public forum - Orkut. The report after being published in Mumbai Mirror has created a stir among the Orkutians and opened up a whole new box of debate.

The incident

Abhishek had created a fake account in the name of the girl with her mobile number posted on the profile. The profile has been sketched in such a way that it draws lewd comments from many who visit her profile. The Thane Cyber Cell tracked down Abhishek from the false e-mail id that he made to open up the account.

The question

In this case, the girl has not posted her picture or mobile number in the fake profile. A brief search in the Orkut profile will reveal many such profiles with pictures of beautiful girls. My guess is that many of these girls are not even aware of the fact that their profile exists. These are created by some other people. I will term this as “rape of the image”. Now the question is “Can we really prevent this rape?”

The debate

The Mumbai Mirror’s report on the issue came with tips to the Orkut users. Police Sub-Inspector Ravindra Chauhan has been quoted as saying, “Orkut users should not put up their photographs on the site. They should not reveal personal information in their profile. Also no cellphone numbers or identity should be mentioned in the scrap book, as it is open to all.” But whether this really can be a way out, is debatable. “What about the hundreds of CVs I send to the unknown agencies everyday? They even contain my mobile number”, says Aditi, a DU student and a hardcore Orkut addict. She does have a point.

The truth is that in today’s world mobile numbers are far from being personal information. The proof lies in the numerous sales calls that we receive from credit card agents. On the issue of the photograph, Aditi says, “When Orkut gives an opportunity to show your face to the whole world, then why not?” When asked about the risks involved, she replied, “Who cares?” But everyone is not as carefree as Aditi. A brief search in Orkut once more will reveal profiles that have pictures of film stars, flowers, animals, sceneries and not the face of the owner. “I will never put my picture on Orkut profile,” says Mansi, whose profile in Orkut carries the picture of Aishwarya Rai. “It’s not safe, anybody and everybody can save it on their computer and can misuse it.” But here again the question lies - can we really prevent it? What happens to the hundreds of passport photographs we send with the application forms all our life? Any of them can be scanned and put up without our notice. Are we sure that all copies of the digital pictures taken at our local photography shop are deleted after we leave? “I don’t know, but there is no harm in being careful,” says Mansi.

So perhaps even in this age of globalisation and technical advancements we will hold ourselves from showing our face to the entire world for we never know who is misusing it in what way. And as the lawmakers say “We cannot do anything, until a complaint is lodged”.

Why there is a war for best browser?

Why there is a war for best browser?

Internet Explorer 7 VS Firefox

Who is the bond on internet? Microsoft or Mozilla. I think so both have some flaws and good things in them. It’s not a war of open source and Microsoft. It's just a way of those people to get satisfaction by abusing closed source companies. "Abuse" just because companies day b day don't allow them to use pirated softwares and getting new updates.

Firefox have several things in it easy to use features like tabbed browsing and???? Is there any. You may yes, Extensions. So buddies I want to tell you with each addition of extension you will increase memory requirement of your browser, which is already too high. Frequent browser crash is main drawback of Firefox. It’s true that Firefox is one of the best browsers, But we can't ignore this fact that Internet Explorer is much more ahead of Firefox.

Now come to IE7. One thing is sure when it comes to graphics and user interface no once can beat Microsoft. But still there are some security issues which are coming with IE 7. Tabbed browsing is also there. No one in this world is perfect. Everything has pros and cons. So why not browsers. I am unable to understand why there is a debate going on who is best IE or Mozilla. IE has its own user base and Mozilla has its own. When you want more graphics you have to loose security and when you need more security you have to loose graphics.

Life is a compromise those who can do it survive on earth others can’t. So a user must decide according to his needs that which browser is best for him.

There is a famous phrase in the world that “security is meant only for novice users, miscellaneous user will find some way to crack security”. I use to work on both IE and Firefox as well.

But side by side, whether I use Firefox or IE, I always use firewall and antivirus system also. I use to surf the good sites.

People use to surf sites which have porn content or provides software cracks or serial. Normally these types of sites try to hack your browser or inject a virus in computer. So people should take proper precaution when they visit these types of sites.

Tips to visit sites which provide suspicious content:-

1. When you surf net use a restricted window user account rather than account having administrator privileges.
2. Install a good anti virus on your system and update it regularly.
3. Install a good firewall on your system and also update it plus raise the level of protection than normal one.
4. Disable JavaScript of your browser.
5. Never install any plug-in/Activex suggested by site until unless you are satisfied with gentility of site. Like you can easily trust Microsoft, Yahoo, Google etc. But never trust porn sites.
6. Try to use Genuine Microsoft Windows and other software as it is easy to get update of genuine softwares.

(Price is not an issue for them who want peace of mind. Do you work in your office without pay? Answer is ‘NO’. So if every thing have price than software must also companies use to pay heavy salary to software engineers for those softwares. Frankly speaking if you don’t use genuine software mean to say if you don’t pay for them but still using them than you don’t have any right to say about their good and bad things. Companies are liable to answer only those who pay them just like you are liable to answer you boss. You will listen abusing thing from any body else.)

You can also take them as Tips to use Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

uffering From Frequent Windows XP Crashes? Try this

uffering From Frequent Windows XP Crashes? Try this

We all are aware of the crashes of operating systems. It's very irritating when you finished writing a long document and as soon as you press save, system crashses. At that time you just abuse the company of your OS and look for another OS to switch over. But if you are using Microsoft Windows XP than just relax, There are some solutions available for your problem. And what's the best part is one of them is windows inbuilt function.

Windows, Mac, Linux every system use to crash. But believe me they are not developed to crash. They are other applications, softwares, device drivers, or faulty hardware which are responsible for crashing of OS. So not making a long chain of comments I am just going straight towards the problem.

System or Application crash is not a problem until unless it does not occur frequently. But if your system is crashing frequently and you are using Windows XP than after each crash Windows shows this type of screen.

At this time what we normally do is just abuse Microsoft and press "Don't Send" Button. We think that it's like salt on wound. But Dear reader take the brake. Instead of pressing button on right side....Press the button on Left Side i.e. "Send Error Report". Don't worry even if you are using pirated windows because Genuine window validation is not required to use this feature. Neither Microsoft collects private data from your computer while Submitting Report.

You will defiantly ask question what's the use of helping Microsoft by submitting report. My dear friend Microsoft have a full department to analyze the problem submitted through this tool.

Visit this link to know more: https://oca.microsoft.com/en/welcome.aspx

Most of the times when you use this tool than as soon as it submit report to Microsoft, it will open a browser window and show you the solution of your problem. Like when I used this tool last time it show me that my device driver of Audio needs to be updated and after upgrade of driver, problem gets solved.

Other Tips to Recover from System Crash:-

1. Use PC analyze software to check your PC for hardware problems. You can use Syssoft Sandra. Its a free software for system analysis. This software also have feature of hardware benchmark.
2. If windows doesn't shows any application name while crashing and Submitting report also fails to provide any information than try to check your RAM . Clean the cabinet and remove all dust on RAM and motherboard.
3. Use softwares like registry cleaner/repairing to clean/repair registry of your Windows. Only one thing I want to mention Most of Registry Cleaning Software are not Free.
4. Try to uninstall the application during use of which system crashes mostly.
5. Sometimes SPYWARES due to conflict with Firewall causes system to respond slowly, restart. So If you are facing frequent system restart than try to look your PC for spywares. AVG Free Anti Spyware is a good option.

Gmail, Why I am leaving it?

Gmail, Why I am leaving it?

In our day to day life we are getting habitual of emails, a major way of communication. Most of the people are using free email services like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Lycos, Aol etc..

I think so its near about one and half year back when I heard about Gmail with huge inbox size of 2 GB. Instantly I searched one of my friend and got an invitation for opening a Gmail account. I was very happy at that time. But soon after 7-8 months problems started raising their heads.

So here are the problems:-

1. Gmail is offering more than 2GB of Inbox size but its not for my mails...I think so it's for SPAM. I use to receive 100 to 200 spams per day....and it's quite hectic to find my original mails in INBOX.

2. Labels a cool way to organize mails. Even I can archive old mails and after applying labels they look like folders. But what if I want to download emails on a Desktop client with POP access (Any client). Unfortunately all mails including sentmails get downloaded in Inbox and there is no sign of archived mails. So problem is what gmail is showing on its web interface can't be copied to Desktop mail client.

3. Google adds. Ya I know that they are text adds JavaScript generated adds) but I don't want them so I disabled JavaScript. Shocking!! Gmail advanced interface gone. I came in the basic HTML View. I don't think so any body reading this want to use Gmail in basic view.

4. I don't know which virus scanner software gmail is using but it always refuses to send executable files. What's more even somebody can't send you an executable file.

5. I use to do mail people to whom I will never contact again in future but what Gmail do is remember all email addresses even If I don't want to save them. It never asks me "Do you want to save?". So till now there are more than 2000 email contacts in my address book and I don't know who is known who is not.

I am not an anti Google guy as I am using it's other services like notepad, bookmarks, analytics, webmaster tools etc. and they are cool.

What I want to say that there are several small players in the field who provides good services...... I know there are too many Google guys who say that they don't find any trouble in using it. But I want to get answer of 1, 2 and 4th point mainly listed above from those guys.

Now I have switched over to other email service quite better than Gmail. Atleast I have control on all things.

The History of Valentine’s Day

The History of Valentine’s Day

Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine’s Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first ‘valentine’ greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor’s daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed ‘From your Valentine,’ an expression that is still in use today.

Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It’s no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘christianize’ celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.


To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.


The boys then sliced the goat’s hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day around 498 A.D. The Roman ‘lottery’ system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine’s Day — should be a day for romance. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.


In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.


According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)


Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.


Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine’s Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap”.

Delete your TEMP files on shutdown

Delete your TEMP files on shutdown
It is really easy to set Windows XP to delete the contents of your Temp folder (or run any other commands) on shutdown. There are numerous reasons why you might want to delete your Temporary files when you shutdown Windows XP. Your Temporary files folder can get extremely large. Take a look at what’s in C:\WINDOWS\Temp.

The first step is to install Xecutor. You can download Xecutor from the Xpertdesign homepage.


The second step is to create a batch file that will delete your temporary files on shutdown. To do this open up notepad and type the following line:del /Q G:\WINDOWS\Temp save your file as tempdelete.bat. Alternatively, you can download my tempdelete.bat file if you prefer.

The third step is to configure Xecutor to run the tempdelete.bat file on shutdown. Open
Xecutor, and answer no to the stream of questionsit prompts you with the first time you run it. Next choose the shutdown tab and add tempdelete.bat file. This is shown below:

After you hit OK you will now see tempdelete.bat in the shutdown tab of Xecutor.
Now just close Xecutor and it will run in your system tray. The last step is to drag the Xecutor icon from your desktop into your Startup folder located in Start >> All Programs >> Startup so that Xecutor starts when you start Windows.
You are all set, now when you shutdown Windows, your temporary files will be deleted, as well. You can add other commands the same way (i.e., delete cookies, delete My Documents, etc.).
What other commands do you think would be useful to run at Shutdown? Let us know in the comments.

Make XP boot even Faster

Make XP boot even Faster
Microsoft has chosen a completely different path for XP and it’s boot features by trying to incorporate as much support for newer fastboot BIOSes that are on most current motherboards. They built XP in such a way as to make it able to take advantage of features in these new BIOSes, and one of the coolest things is a small application called bootvis. bootvis.Bootvis watches everything that loads at boot time, from the moment the OS begins to load just after POST (Power On Self-Test) to the moment you get to a usable Desktop. Some programs, most notably Norton AntiVirus 2007, suck up valuable seconds before you can actually DO anything even though you’re at the Desktop. bootvis generates a trace file that you load and can then “see” a visual representation of what’s happening. Every file, driver, hard drive read/write, etc., is recorded. You can then use bootvis to optimize the loading of files during the boot sequence. bootvis will rearrange the ways these very files are stored on the hard drive, thereby improving the boot time dramatically.

Make Windows XP Act Like Vista

Make Windows XP Act Like Vista
Not thrilled about spending a bundle on Vista–and dealing with potential bugs and hardware upgrades? Stick with XP, and use these tools to emulate the Vista experience.
The Hassle: I’m trying to resist moving to Vista. How can I make XP perform like the new Windows OS?
The Fix(es): You can be a holdout (like me) and use a few XP-based freebies that do a surprisingly good job of emulating some of Vista’s fancy graphical features. The first three apps listed below are my favorites. You can find all of the free tools and more online at “Add Vista Features to XP.”
Copernic Desktop Search: Vista’s search is fast and smart–and so is Copernic’s, with keyword, file content, Boolean, and wildcard searches. If you don’t like the look and feel of Copernic, Google Desktop makes a good substitute.
Desktop Sidebar: Vista has a handy Windows sidebar with calendars, calculators, a quick link to your media player, and RSS feeds. Desktop Sidebar offers similar features, with zillions of add-ons, including a file browser, a weather summary, news updates, and an e-mail checker. Too complicated for you? Then try the simpler LaunchBar Commander, which lets you create multiple on-screen panels (called docks) for launching various applications and documents.
Vista Start Menu SE: This utility creates a fair imitation of Vista’s Start menu, but adds functions that Vista lacks–built-in shortcut keys to frequently used Windows functions such as Reboot, Switch Users, and Hibernate. Another great alternative for organizing apps and files is JetStart Free; it’s faster than Vista Start Menu SE, but less fancy. (Choose just one of these tools.)
Visual Task Tips: This clever tool pops up a preview–a miniature image–of the open window in the taskbar. Scroll your mouse wheel up or down on the image to resize it.
Folder Marker: Customize your folder icons and icon backgrounds with Vista icons. Folder Marker is a snap to use, and you can visit Horizon Software to download a bunch of Vista icons. (Choose icons of the Ico file type.)
If you haven’t had enough (and I know you haven’t), read “Why Wait for Vista?” Scott Dunn’s take on tools that give your PC the look of Vista without the annoying underlying operating system.
WindowBlinds 5: One prominent Vista feature you might like is Windows Glass, the semitransparent, colored window edges that Windows Aero has. WindowBlinds 5 provides skins–visual styles and themes–that allow you to change the look and feel of many parts of Windows XP. For example, this $20 program lets you modify toolbar icons, the Start Menu and Start button, menu and dialog borders, and the taskbar and title bar. Get the Vista Plus Version 2 skin at the WinCustomize site.

Laptop Vs Notebook

Most people use the terms notebook and laptop interchangably.Once it's not sitting on top of your desk every portable computer instantly becomes a notebook or laptop regardless of its configuration.

A standard notebook has the following features:

1. Ultralight. Less weight is better.
2. 4 hours+ battery life.
3. No internal floppy drive.
4. Minimal graphics subsystem.
5. No internal DVD or CD system.
6. 12" - 14" TFT screen.
7. Low profile (thin).
8. Integrated modem and network connection.
9. Smallest possible keyboard that retains functionality.
10. Low power consumption Celeron or Centrino style processor.

In essence a notebook computer is designed to provide mobile computing that won't break your back yet still offer all the power the mobile users requires for work and some leisure pursuits.

Now for the laptop...

A laptop is designed to sit on your lap and you can therefore expect it to be quite large and loaded down with features and power.

The standard laptop computer would have some ,if not all, of the following features:

1. 14" - 17" (widescreen) TFT screen.
2. Nvidia GeForce or ATI Radeon graphics subsystem.
3. Internal DVD-ROM or DVD-RW drive
4. Large full featured keyboard.
5. 2 hour+ battery life.
6. Upgradeable.
7. Integrated modem, network and Wi-Fi capabilities.
8. High quality integrate audio and speaker system.
9. Low power consumption, high performance Intel Centrino style processor.

notebook is the exact opposite of the laptop.
Notebooks offer reasonable power and extreme portability.

Laptops are designed to be capable of replacing an entire desktop PC if necessary whilst still offering desktop performance in a mobile platform.