Useful Tips

2011-08-24T01:57:00.001-07:00

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.

PC Useful Tips

Useful Tips