PC Heaven

Save energy
Leaving your PC on wastes both energy and cash: running it overnight could cost you more than £100 a year. It’s time to stop sinning and make some savings.

Step1: Click Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Power Options. If your system uses the High Performance power plan then you can save a little energy by selecting Balanced.

Step2: Selecting Very low power delivers a real energy cut, but mainly by limiting the work your CPU can do, so it’s best used on laptops or PCs that aren’t running anything too intensive.

Step3: Click Change plan settings for your plan. Windows Vista normally turns the display off after 20 minutes of inactivity; cut this to 10, perhaps set the PC to sleep after 20 minutes or so.

Save power – disable Windows Aero at will

Run REGEDIT and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\Shell. Right-click the Shell part, select New > Key and call it Aero On.

Right-click the Aero On key you’ve created, and create a new key called command. Double-click this (in the right-hand side of the screen) and give it the value Rundll32 dwmApi #102.

Right-click the Shell key again, select New > Key, and call this Aero Off. Create a command key below it, as you’ve just done, and give it the value Rundll32 dwmApi #104.

Now, right-click an empty part of the desktop to see your options, and select Aero On when you want fancy effects like Flip 3D, and Aero Off when you’re after raw speed.

Blissful browsing

The next time you find yourself revisiting a frequently updated site like Digital Spy, Digg or BBC News, stop and select Tools > Feed Discovery. If the site provides an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed then you’ll see one or more links listed here. Choose one and click the Subscribe option.

Now launch the Windows Sidebar, if it’s not already running, click the plus sign and double-click on the Feed Headlines gadget. This will pop up and display all the latest headlines from the site, and they’ll be updated as new stories appear.

Boost your productivity

Learn a few angelic Windows keyboard shortcuts

Hold Shift when inserting a CD
Prevent the CD from autoplaying
F4 in Windows Explorer
Display the address bar location list
F5
Refresh the screen
Ctrl and Z
Undo an action
Ctrl and Y
Redo an action, in case you’ve used undo incorrectly
Shift and Delete
Delete the selected file(s) without moving to the Recycle bin (be careful!)
Shift and F10
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item
Alt and Tab
Switch to the previously active window
Alt and F4
Close the active window
Windows key and D
Show the desktop
Windows key and E
Open Windows Explorer
Windows key and F
Open a Search window
Windows key and G
Cycle through Sidebar gadgets
Windows key and R
Open a Run window
Windows key and T
Cycle through and preview all the applications on the taskbar
Windows key and 1
Launch the first program on your Quick Launch toolbar
Windows key and 2
Launch the second program on your Quick Launch toolbar
Windows key and Tab
Use Flip 3D to cycle through all currently open applications
Windows key and Spacebar
Select the Windows Sidebar
Ctrl and Mousewheel
Changes the view of your current folder
Left Alt and left Shift and Print Screen
Toggles the highcontrast display

Divine file management

Having to open Windows Explorer just to move a file gets annoying. But there is a quicker way.

How would you like to copy or move a file directly from its right-click menu? Then try this:

Launch REGEDIT, go HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex in REGEDIT, and click ContextMenuHandlers. Select Edit > New Key, call it Copy To, doubleclick it and enter the value {C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}.

Create another key called Move To, with the default value {C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}.

Right-click a file now, choose either option, and a pop-up window will appear where you can immediately choose the destination folder. Easy!

Celestial software updates

Make sure you keep your PC up-to-date.

Step1: Click Start > All Programs > Windows Update, and make sure it’s set up to update your system automatically. Then click Get updates for more products.

Step2: Your PC will now check if there are optional updates and fixes available for Windows. Click View Available Updates and double-click any update to find out more about it.

Step3: Check the boxes, and click Install. Then install the free UpdateStar (www.updatestar.com), to scan the rest of your programs and let you know when updates are available.

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