Jan 14

Helpful Tip: Disable the System Beep in Windows

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on October 23, 2007 by CyberNet.

One of the things that annoys me the most in Windows is the system beep. It’s loud and often happens at the most inopportune times, like during a meeting or a class. All heads turn towards you as people wonder what idiot would have the sound turned on.

On most operating systems when you mute your audio it has no affect on the system beep. To me that’s like turning the ringer off on your cellphone, but still have it make a sound each time you press a key. It just doesn’t make much sense.

Drastic times lead to drastic measures. You can mute the system beep by turning it off in the Windows Registry:

  1. Press the Windows Key + R to bring up the Run command. Type regedit into the box to start the Registry Editor.
  2. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound and double-click on the Beep entry. Replace the yes value data with no:

    (Click to Enlarge)
    Disable System Beep in Windows

  3. Press OK and exit out of the Registry Editor.
  4. Reboot Windows, and enjoy your refreshing beepless computing!

A world without beeps is a peaceful one. ;) Beep free is the way to be … go disable the system beep!

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Jan 11

Helpful Tip: How to Keep your Desktop Clean

Posted in: Today's Chili, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on September 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

If you’re one of those that installs a lot of applications or saves documents to your desktop, it doesn’t take long before you’re staring at a sea full of icons and you can’t find the one you’re looking for.  Often times, most of those icons can go unused for months at a time which means they’re just taking up space and making the important icons harder to find. Here are a few tips on how to keep your desktop clean:

  1. Create folders for the icons you don’t use regularly – You could create one folder for applications, one for documents, and another for pictures that you don’t access regularly. It’ll be much nicer to look at a few folders filled with icons versus a desktop full of icons. To create a new folder, just right click on your desktop and then click new>folder.
  2. Use the Desktop Cleanup Wizard in Windows XP – If you’re using Windows XP, there’s a tool called Desktop Cleanup Wizard that will remove unwanted shortcuts from your desktop. To access the Desktop Cleanup Wizard, just right-click on your desktop, then click "arrange icons by" and then click "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard." You’ll be taken through the process of selecting which shortcuts will be left on your desktop. The ones you decide not to keep will be placed in an "Unused Desktop Shortcuts" folder. This is only a feature found in XP.desktop cleanup wizard 
  3. Auto Arrange Icons – Maybe it’s not that you have a lot of icons, but they’re just thrown all over the screen. Using the "auto arrange icons" feature will arrange the icons so that they look nicer on your desktop. They’ll be evenly spaced out and placed in columns. To auto arrange your icons in Windows Vista and XP, right-click on your desktop then click "Arrange Icons By">Auto Arrange.
  4. Hide Desktop Icons – In some instances, you may want to hide all of your desktop icons.  I know when I’m taking screenshots, I’d rather that my icons stay out of the shot. You can hide all of your icons very simply by right-clicking on your desktop > Arrange Icons by> Show Desktop Icons. Once you do this, your icons will be hidden.
  5. Save the position of your icons – This won’t necessarily help you keep your desktop clean, but it will help keep your desktop organized. To learn how to save the position of your icons to restore at any time, checkout this article.

Of course, if you have your own suggestiosn for keeping your desktop clean, feel free to share…

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Jan 10

CyberNotes: Speed Up and Tweak how Vista Indexes your Computer

Posted in: CyberNotes, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on March 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

I’m sure all of you are probably getting sick of me raving about Vista’s incredible integrated search, but it really is that good. When you get your computer all setup the first thing you might want to do is choose what locations and filetypes Vista is allowed to index. Remember, you really want to keep your index as slim as possible because that will mean that the searches are performed even faster.

Here’s what you need to do to customize the way Vista indexes your computer:

  1. Go to the Start Menu and type index into the search field. Press Enter when the Indexing Options appears. Note: if prompted with a User Account Control (UAC) warning press Continue.
    Vista Index
  2. The screen that you should now be at is essentially the central hub for controlling Vista search indexing. First, you can modify the locations that are currently indexed by clicking the Modify button:
    Vista Index

  3. Now navigate through your hard drive and select which folders you want to be indexed. For example, if you only want to search your own files then select your directory in the “Users” folder. When you finish selecting the folders press the OK button.
    Vista Index
  4. Now you should be back on the main Indexing options screen pictured in Step 2. Select Advanced and on the popup window choose the File Types tab. Go through and unselect any of the filetypes that you don’t think you’ll ever need. You can always go back and change this later on, so it isn’t that big of a deal if you uncheck something you didn’t mean to.
    Vista Index
  5. Lastly, go back to the Index Settings tab and select the option to Rebuild the index. This will ensure that your index is updated with the latest settings you just chose by erasing everything that has already been indexed.
    Vista Index
  6. Press OK on that window and press Close on the next window to exit the Indexing Options.

When I have everything on my computer indexed right now with all of the different filetypes, it has about 75,000 files indexed. If I go through and filter out the directories that I don’t really use along with the filetypes that I don’t care for I can trim that down to 30,000 files. That’s a pretty big difference and I can definitely notice a difference in speed when searching for things.

I’ve been using the final release of Vista for a little over a month now and I am really pleased with how it handles. In pre-release builds of Vista the search indexer would frequently crash when I was in the middle of a search, but the only thing I have had crash on me thus far is Firefox…and that is to be expected since I am using Firefox 3 pre-release builds that are fairly unstable.

Some of you may argue that there are plenty of desktop search application out there, such as Google Desktop Search, that will provide the same instant results without the need to upgrade to Vista. That’s true, but I always found those applications to either slow down my computer or I would simply forget to use them. Vista’s search is always right there in front of your face, and there is no way that you’ll forget to use it. Heck, I use the Search Bar in the Start Menu to run programs over trying to find the shortcuts! Microsoft made it so simple to use that Search Bar as well…just press the Windows Key on the keyboard and start typing your search because the Search Bar automatically receives the focus when you open the Start Menu.

I would also like to close by mentioning a nifty little add-on that a Microsoft employee made to make the Search Bar even more powerful. It’s called Start++ and will let you create custom search strings that can either perform a search on a website or launch a program. It has all kinds of uses, and for more information checkout the post that we made about it.

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Jan 07

CyberNotes: Vista Terms Defined

Posted in: CyberNotes, Microsoft, Today's Chili, Windows Vista

This article was written on July 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Microsoft Monday

With the introduction of Vista came a whole new set of unfamiliar features and terms. This article will be a set of questions and answers that define what some of the new features are which will help you make the most out of Windows Vista.

What is UAC?

We’ve mentioned UAC several times before. It’s an abbreviation for User Account Control, and it’s one of Microsoft’s newest ways to improve security and safety on your computer. At times, as some of you have probably experienced, it can be annoying. However, it’s there for a good reason.

How does it improve security and safety on your computer? The job of the UAC is to prevent unauthorized software from making changes to your computer. It’s a little over-protective it at times, but generally it’s a good thing to keep enabled.

Uaccontrols

If you find yourself frustrated with this new feature while you’re installing a lot of software at once (e.g., when you’re setting-up your computer for the first time), a good way to resolve this issue is to temporarily disable Vista’s UAC.  You can do this without needing to restart your PC with a program called TweakUAC.

What is ReadyBoost?

ReadyBoost is a new way to add memory (RAM) to your system. Adding additional RAM to your computer is often a great way to increase the performance of your PC, however, some of you may have run into the problem of not having enough room to do so.

ReadyBoost allows a user to add additional memory to your system using “non-volatile flash memory” like what you would find on a USB flash drive or memory card. To use ReadyBoost, just insert your removable memory device like the USB flash drives as mentioned, and Windows will check to ensure that it’s fast enough to work with Ready Boost. If it is, you’ll be given the option to use all of the memory, or part of it.

I tried it with my 2 GB USB drive and it displayed a message saying “this device does not have the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system.” Should you receive that message, there is a work-around for it so that you’ll be able to use any USB Drive or Memory Card.

What is SuperFetch?

The whole idea of SuperFetch was to improve performance of Windows Users with a faster loading experience. SuperFetch works by analyzing your behavior like which applications you use the most. Then it automatically puts those apps in available memory so that when you go to use them, they will be “superfetched”

For example, each morning when I wake up I open Firefox, FeedDemon, and Microsoft Word, usually in that order. SuperFetch would recognize this and have those apps ready to go for me in available memory so that the process of opening all of those programs is much quicker.

This idea is by no means new, and in fact, Windows XP had a feature called Prefetcher which had a similar idea behind it, but it was much more limited than the SuperFetch in Vista.

Wrapping it up

UAC, ReadyBoost, and SuperFetch are only three of many new terms and features introduced with Vista. We’ll cover more of these terms in the future, and hopefully this will help you get the most out of your operating system.

 

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Jan 04

CyberNotes: Style Your Sidebar with Windows Sidebar Styler

Posted in: CyberNotes, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista

This article was written on June 28, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

The last several months I have been using Windows Vista, and I’ve really gotten used to having my sidebar filled with gadgets. I love that I can put nearly anything in the sidebar like games, maps, gas prices, photos, etc. While I think the sidebar looks fine the way it is, there are ways that you can tweak it to add something more to it.  One of the applications that helps you do this is called Windows Sidebar Styler.

Windows Sidebar Styler is described as an application that takes advantage of new technology introduced with Windows Vista to provide “extensions to the existing functionality of Windows Sidebar.” In other words, it allows users to tweak their Sidebar so that they’re presented with a customized interface. Today I’ll be explaining how to style your sidebar through the use of Windows Sidebar Styler and Sidebar Styles from WinCustomize.

  1. Download and install Windows Sidebar Styler. Installation is pretty typical, and only takes a few minutes. Download is found here (32–bit or 64–bit)
  2. Once the installation process is complete, head on over to Win Customize to pick-out the sidebar styler that you’d like to use. There’s two-pages to choose from, and they’ve done a great job designing them. I downloaded several of them myself to try them out.
  3. When you find one that you like, click on the image to download the file.
    Wincustomizedownload 
    You’ll want to save the file to disk because it’s a zip file and it will need to be extracted.
  4. Next, extract the file that you downloaded and double click the file in the folder (the one that’s not an image). The key thing to remember is that the Windows Sidebar Styler program you downloaded earlier does not need to be open. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be.
    Wincustomize2

  5. After you double click on the file, you’ll get a message asking if you’d like to close the Windows Sidebar if it’s currently running. Click yes.
    Wincustomize3
  6. After you click yes to the above prompt, your style will be applied. Here’s an example of what my sidebar looked like with the “Cardboard” style, and the BrickWall style. They have several subtle styles, but I chose two that would stand out well.
    Chardboardstyle       Brickstyle
  7. Without the use of Windows Sidebar Styler, you wouldn’t be able to apply any of the sidebar styles that you found over at WinCustomize. So while the program doesn’t need to be open to apply a new style, it’s still necessary for you to download it and have it on your computer.
  8. If you’d like to get creative and change the individual items like the background, or the buttons in your sidebar, you can open Windows Sidebar Styler Advanced Settings and right click on any of the available image resources found in the menu and click replace. Then you can replace it with your own image.
    Note: This is really more work than what is needed. People have done a great job putting together a variety of stylers on WinCustomize that you can use. If you really want to be creative then by all means, play around with the advanced options with the Sidebar Styler program.

Changing the look for your sidebar really is a very simple process and doesn’t take much time. You could have a whole look for your Vista Sidebar within 5 minutes. Not bad!

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Jan 01

CyberNotes: Reset a Windows Admin Password (XP or Vista)

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on October 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

The other day I had someone who ran into a big problem that many of us hope to never come across. What happened was the user had forgotten the administrator password for their Windows Vista machine, and had no idea how they could log on. I’ve had people ask how to do this kind of thing in the past, but had never actually looked for a viable solution myself.

I was determined to find a workaround this time, and it had to be one that didn’t involve reinstalling Windows. That’s when I came across the free Trinity Rescue Kit, which turned out to be exactly what the doctor ordered. As you might expect this is a Linux-based password reset tool, and it takes no time at all to put it to work. In fact this works so well that it will make you think twice about the security of your own system!

Here’s what you have to do:

  1. Download and burn the Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK) ISO image to a CD or DVD.
  2. Restart your computer, and make sure it boots from the TRK CD/DVD.
  3. When presented with the TRK menu be sure to select the first option that reads Run Trinity Rescue Kit 3.3 (default):
    trinity menu.jpg
  4. TRK will take a minute or so to finish loading, and when it’s done you should be left with a prompt where you can type your commands. Note that Steps 5 and 6 are not needed to change a password, but can be helpful.
  5. The main command we’ll be working with is winpass, and for getting started you should type winpass -l to see a list of users on the machine. When you type that command it will ask you which drive you want the user list retrieved from, and in most cases you’ll want to type the number 1 followed by the Enter key (this selects the primary partition):
    trinity winpass l.png
  6. After you’ve selected the partition you’ll be presented with a list of users on the machine along with what accounts have been disabled or locked:
    trinity user list.png
  7. You should once again be at a prompt, and this time we’re actually going to change or reset a password for one of the accounts on the machine. At the prompt type:
    winpass -u Administrator
    In this example “Administrator” is the username you want to reset the password for. Replace it with the username you’re working with.
  8. You’ll now be asked which partition you’d like to have analyzed/mounted just like in Step 5, and you’ll likely want to select the first one. After that you can look under the Account Bits section which lets you know whether the user’s password ever expires, if the account is disabled, and more. What you’ll want to focus on, however, is the User Edit Menu that lists the type of operations you can perform on the account. The easiest thing for you would probably be to choose the first option, which will just clear the password on the account:
    trinity password reset-1.png
  9. That’s all there is to it. After that you should receive a message stating that a backup of the account has been made, and all you have to do now is restart the computer. If you’ve chosen to clear the password the next time you boot up you want to be sure to leave the password blank.

If you look at the options available in Step 8 you’ll also notice that there are other things you can do to accounts on the machine. This includes changing a password, promoting a non-admin user to an administrator, or enabling a disabled account. Once you get the hang of this tool you’ll pretty much be able to give yourself full access to any Windows machine that you can physically get your hands on. Crazy, huh?

Get Trinity Rescue Kit

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Dec 26

Microsoft SharedView Beta Available (Codenamed Tahiti)

Posted in: Apple, Freeware, Microsoft, Pre-Release, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on May 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft has finally opened the doors to the project that was codenamed Tahiti. When this was first released back in March there was such an overwhelming response to try out the software that Microsoft quickly rejected anyone else trying to use the service. Now they have launched it for everyone to play with, and the new name is SharedView.

This free application makes it easy to share applications and desktops with up to 15 users in real-time. Here’s what Microsoft says is so great about SharedView:

  • Microsoft SharedView Beta is a fast, easy way to share documents and screen views with small groups of friends or coworkers; anytime, anywhere. Use SharedView to put your heads together and collaborate.
  • More effective meetings and phone calls
    Connect with up to 15 people in different locations and get your point across by showing them what’s on your screen.
  • Work together in real time
    Share, review, and update documents with multiple people in real time.
  • Use anytime, anywhere
    SharedView is easy to use, from anywhere, at a moment’s notice.

When trying it out myself I wasn’t disappointed, but then again I was just playing with it to see what it was like instead of actually trying to put it to good use. Here are a bunch of the screenshots that I took of SharedView in action (click any of them for a full-size image)…

Choose how you want to invite people:
SharedView by Microsoft SharedView by Microsoft

Here are the configuration options:
SharedView by Microsoft SharedView by Microsoft SharedView by Microsoft

And then here is the main interface where you choose exactly which applications you want people to see, or you can show them your whole desktop:
SharedView by Microsoft

The new version got a nice facelift, as you can see in the screenshots. One of the cool things that I found was being able to share files between users (called handouts), and soon you’ll also be able to talk and chat just like you would at a normal meeting.

Of course, there is no reason why this would only be useful for business, because it could also be used to do other helpful things. Maybe it will be useful when connecting to a friend’s computer to help them solve an issue or walking them through a new application. There are a lot of things that this could be used for that aren’t business related, and hopefully Microsoft will try to promote the software that way as well.

Download Microsoft SharedView Beta (Direct Link – requires no WGA validation)

Source: Webware, Digital Inspiration, & Download Squad

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Dec 25

MyFive: Reasons I Love Windows Vista Media Center

Posted in: Features, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on March 09, 2008 by CyberNet.

I’ve had a Vista machine setup for over a year whose sole purpose is to record my television shows, and I have to say that I’ve fallen deeply in love with it. Prior to owning the Vista Media Center computer I was using a ReplayTV unit to do the recording, and I didn’t think that it got much better than that. The model that I had included a commercial detection feature so that it would automatically skip past commercials as it came across them. I loved it!

When I got the Vista Media Center the ReplayTV was put on the back burner because it was leaps and bounds better than the ReplayTV. For that reason it is actually very easy for me to pinpoint five reasons why Vista Media Center is so great:

  1. Appearance
    Vista Media Center looks really amazing, and I give the designers mad props for making it everything flow so nicely together. I especially love browsing movies that are on TV because it shows the box art for each of them.
    vista media center
  2. WebGuide [Homepage] [Review]
    This is a free add-on created by a developer who was hired by Microsoft after the add-on really started to take off. With WebGuide you’re able to remotely access your Media Center computer through a website. You can remotely schedule shows, browse the television guide, or even stream content to your computer.
  3. DVRMSToolbox [Homepage] [Review]
    As I mentioned earlier being able to skip commercials has become an important part of my television watching experience. This free software will let you do just that, and it is extremely configurable which is something power users will love.
  4. Tuner Extender [Homepage] [Mirror] [Review]
    I recently bought a dual-tuner to add to the single HD tuner that I already have installed in my computer. Vista Media Center will support up to two tuners by default, but it is actually capable of handling many more. The only problem is that you won’t be able to add more than two tuners without using this special application. The fact that I can have three tuners simultaneously recording shows is awesome, even if it does take a little tweaking!
  5. Xbox 360
    A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted access to my television shows in another room, and I was trying to figure out the best way of doing that. I decided on purchasing an Xbox 360 because it serves as Media Center Extender, and with that I’m able to access content from any Media Center machine that is on the same network as the Xbox. I have to say that Microsoft did a great job with the Media Center Extender technology, and I’m extremely happy that the commercial skipping still works even on the extenders. Oh, and I get to play Halo 3. ;)

If there’s one thing in Vista that I really want to applaud Microsoft for it would be the Media Center aspect. It has never really crashed on me, is very extensible, and there is quite a large community surrounding it. I can’t wait to see where Microsoft takes this in the next release of Windows.

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Dec 22

Vista SP1 and XP SP3 in Testing

Posted in: Features, Microsoft, Release Date, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on August 07, 2007 by CyberNet.

There has been a lot of talk lately regarding the status of Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), but Microsoft has stayed clear from confirming both the expected features and release date. Several different sources have confirmed that Vista SP1 is indeed being tested by a small group of people, but it’s not in the form of an update yet. Testers reportedly have to use an installation disc that contains the full Vista operating system in order to test Vista SP1, which is probably why they haven’t made it available to the public yet. In fact, the screenshot below even shows that the current SP1 is treated as an evaluation copy that expires in April 2008.

Vista isn’t the only one with a new Service Pack in the works though. Windows XP SP3 has also been spotted in the hands of testers, and it weighs in at 350MB. It includes over 900 fixes for the operating system, some of which have already been provided to XP users via Windows Updates. With XP SP3 being tested at the same time as Vista SP1 it is expected that the two will have the same release date.

Below are the build ID’s and screenshots from the XP SP3 About screen and Vista SP1 About screen. By reading those ID’s you are able to extract the date of the builds, with Vista SP1’s being June 28, 2007 and XP SP3’s being July 18, 2007.

  • XP SP3 ID: 5.1.2600.3180 (xpsp.070718-2058)
  • Vista SP1 ID: 6001.16549(longhorn_sp1beta1.070628-1825)

Vista SP1 & XP SP3

Source: WinBeta & AeroXP

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Dec 16

Hmm…SUSE Linux Enterprise the Vista Replacement?

Posted in: Linux, Reviews, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista

This article was written on January 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

SUSE Linux Now before I get started I want to say that I use openSUSE as my choice of Linux distribution and couldn’t be happier with it. They always seem to be on top of implementing new technologies that are easy-to-use and really appealing to those who want the latest and greatest. For example, the latest version of openSUSE includes a new KDE Start Menu that is unlike anything you’ll find in other Linux distributions.

With that being said I think Novell, the company that develops SUSE, might be taking things a little far now. They have started a website that compares their Enterprise operating system with Windows Vista, in hopes of attracting more customers. Sure, that sounds like normal competition at first but the only comparisons that they make are the ones that favor them…with the most obvious being pricing.

Novell provides a table (pictured below) that demonstrates the pricing difference between the two major versions of Vista and SUSE Linux Enterprise. They then go on to show you what the total cost (with maintenance) would be over the next year and three years, but they conveniently don’t have maintenance cost information available for their operating system, so they leave that number out of the total.

SUSE Vista Pricing

It is definitely fair for them to do such a comparison because I could have seen Microsoft doing the same thing is the situation was reversed, but this was the part that really caught my attention:

The license costs for Windows Vista Ultimate with Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 reaches a whopping $1,078. With SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, you receive over 90 percent of the functionality of Vista and Office for less than 10 percent of the price.

90 percent of the functionality? That sounds a little high especially if you think about the applications businesses run on their machines that probably won’t work right on Linux. I guess they are probably talking about general features, like managing photos, but that still irks me a little bit.

As far as maintenance goes I would say that the cost to maintain SUSE would be much higher than it would be for Vista. Unless you’re able to get a staff that completely understands Linux the cost for supporting the system and paying IT professionals to do training would probably total more than upgrading to Vista.

I guess that is the end of my rant, which I try not to do very often, but it seems like they are misleading people a little bit. I agree that almost all versions of Linux are probably more secure than Windows, which is probably the area that Novell should have tried to focus the attention on.

What does everyone else think about this? Is Novell going about this the wrong way or are they smart for pursuing the marketing so aggressively?

News Source: Desktop Linux

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