WINDOWS 7
Enable GodMode
I’ve come across a few mentions of
Windows 7’s secret GodMode while
browsing the web. However, it isn’t quite
what you’d expect. The name implies that
it is an all-powerful tool that gives you
the ability to do things that you wouldn’t
normally be able to do. It could bestow
some kind of invulnerability, perhaps. The
truth is that it’s simply a special folder –
one of many that you can create. It is not
one that is very well known though, and it
has some very useful features, so it is well
worth using. Right-click the Desktop and
select New, Folder. Now enter this weird
name: ‘GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-
465E-825C-99712043E01C}’ (without the
quotes). The folder is given a special icon
and all those numbers and letters are
hidden. Double-click it and you’ll see a
long list of actions you can perform. Try
it and see
Find new functions
There are so many hard-to-find features,
hidden functions, obscure dialogues and
confusing options in Windows 7 and
Vista that most people don’t know half of
what’s available. Click the Start button
and type in a word like ‘configure’ and
you’ll see a list of items. At the top is a
heading that says Control Panel (62).
Click it to open a window that shows all
the items. Everything is organised into
categories including Internet Options,
System, Speech Recognition,
Administrative Tools, Sound, ‘Devices
and Printers’ and more. It makes
interesting reading and there are links to
useful items that you might not be
familiar with or know where to find.
Other good words to enter into the
Search box on the Start menu are ‘setup’
and ‘settings’ (without the quotes).
WINDOWS XP
Make Windows XP look like
Windows 7
XP is the sturdiest of all the Windows
operating systems, in my opinion, but I’ve
fallen in love with Windows 7. I use it on
my laptop, which used to have the
disappointing Windows Vista on it. If you
feel the same way, let me introduce you
to Dedoimedo’s page on making XP look
like Windows 7, which you’ll find at www.
dedoimedo.com/computers/windowsxp-
7.html. It has lots of information and
links that will show you how to run XP
with Windows 7 themes. Delight in the
icons, Taskbar, Aero Shake (brilliant) and
oodles of other tweaks available to make
your Windows XP look like Windows 7.
Alternatively, if you’re still wondering
whether to upgrade to Windows 7, I’d
advise you just to get on with it! You
won’t regret it.
BROWSERS
Faster Firefox
It can take several seconds to fully
download a web page and display it, so
Firefox shows you the bits that have
downloaded every 0.12 seconds.
Although this gives you something to
look at and gives the impression that the
page is downloading, it actually wastes
time and slows Firefox down. If Firefox
refreshes the page less often, it will
download pages faster. To change the
refresh rate, enter ‘about:config’ (without
the quotes) into the address box. Rightclick
on the page and select New, then
Boolean. Name it ‘content.notify.ontimer’
(without the quotes) and then set the
value to True. Right-click again and
select New, then Integer. Name it
‘content.notify.interval’ (without the
quotes) and set the value to 500000
(that’s 500,000 microseconds or half a
second).
INTERNET
Docs as storage
Did you know you can now upload any
kind of file to Google Docs (http://docs.
google.com)? This is useful because you
can use it for general storage, as well as
for keeping and editing documents and
spreadsheets. You have 1GB of storage
space by default, though you can
purchase more if you need to. You can
upload files of up to 250MB in size, so
most things will be OK, though you may
want to shrink any videos you’ve made.
