If your a Windows user you've probably had the occasional desktop freeze. In most cases you would just restart your PC losing any unsaved data in open programs. However, you maybe able to salvage what your working on without restating your PC.
This tip shows you how to restart the Windows Vista Explorer Shell without restarting Windows Vista. This tip also applied to Windows XP, though the screens vary a little, the steps are basically the same.
1. Next time you find yourself in this scenario with a desktop freeze and becomes unresponsive, press Ctrl+Alt+Del. If you get the Task Manager window proceed with step 2.
2. Click the Start Task Manager button, as shown here
3. Click the Processes tab, then scroll down to find the explorer.exe process.
Right-click on explorer.exe and select End Process.
6. A Task Manager warning pop-up is displayed asking you to confirm that you really want to end the process. Click Yes to end the process, which should make the desktop clear itself.
7. In Task Manager still open, click on the File menu, and select New Task then chose Run, as shown here
8. Lastly type explorer.exe, and click OK. The Windows Explorer Shell restarts and should make the desktop, along with applications you had open, reappear.
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Written by PCWizKid on May 10th, 2008 with no comments.
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ClocX is analog clock application for Microsoft Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. It is programmed in C++ language, which ensures small executable binary, optimal speed and low memory usage.
If you want the features of Windows Vista's sidebar, get it now at no cost!
Download it from here directlyThese are cool looking clocks with many features such as:
- 256 levels of transparency with special mouse-over transparency function
- changable and configurable styles (24 PNGs and 7 BMPs in standard installation, additional 98 PNGs and 69 BMPs available in full instalation or in PNG/BMP packs)
- per-pixel alphablending for PNG backgrounds
- advanced window options (unmovable, always on top, pin to desktop, click through, ...)
- priority settings
- configurable alarms with ability to show alarm window, play sound, execute application and shutdown computer
- simple calendar
- automatic start with Windows (for all users) or with user login (only for your user)
- language support (Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and more)
- absolutely free software - it contains no ads, no spyware, no adware and no toolbars
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Written by PCWizKid on April 18th, 2008 with no comments.
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Useful, quick shortcuts to common actions are not always available in a OS, specially Windows. luckily we can hack are way into the registry or tweak easily the default behavior and its functionality to suite our needs.
Below are three tutorials I put together recently for Windows XP (and Vista) users.
Windows Hack - Add Options to Right Click Menu
Add the option Copy To and Move To on the Windows Explorer Right Click Menu.
This hack can be applied to Windows XP and Vista.
Notes from video:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
Copy To {C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Move To {C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Windows Hack -Add a Command Prompt Shortcut to the Right Click Menu
This Windows XP tip allows you to access hidden functionality by adding a right click option to select "Command Prompt Here" from the menu in windows explorer on a directory.
Windows Trick - Create a Special Shortcut to Lock Your PC
Create a Shortcut for Locking Your Computer Screen in Windows XP or Vista.
Notes from video:
Shortcut information to enter is:
rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation
The icon can be changed to a system icon if you point to the file in c:\windows\system32\shell32.dll when browsing for a new icon to change it to.
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Written by PCWizKid on April 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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Do you have a USB flash drive laying around? Speed up your Windows Vista with the ReadyBoost feature. It allows you to use that spare space on a USB stick reduce wait time when using Vista.
Basically Windows ReadyBoost allows Vista to use a compatible USB flash drive as cache instead of the hard drive. Microsoft suggests that you provide enough space on a flash drive for ReadyBoost so that you are in at least a 1:1 ratio with your installed physical RAM. So if you have 1Gig of Ram installed, would be best ot have a 1Gig USB drive, or at minimum 512Meg free of space on it.
Without getting too picky if you have a really old USB drive, see if you can find out the specs for it, it is recommended that the USB drive you have be at least:
5 MB/sec throughput for random 4k reads across the entire device 3 MB/sec throughput for random 512k writes across the entire deviceHere are some suggestions on compatible Readyboost Flash drives
Steps to enabling ReadyBoost
1. Insert the USB drive into one of your computer's USB ports. The AutoPlay dialog box opens a few seconds after plugging the drive in asking you what you want to do. Click "Speed up my system".
2. A new screen will appear showing the ReadyBoost properties. Select the "Use This Device" option. Then use the slider labeled
"Space to reserve for system speed" to reserve the amount of space you would like to assign to ReadyBoost. Use 100% of the USB sticks space if you can.
3. Click on the
Apply and then the
OK buttons to finalize the changes. The USB flash drive is now reserved as your ReadyBoost device and will be used as additional cache memory. Just remember to keep the USB stick plugged into the USB port on your PC when it boots up so Vista can detect and use it. You should notice a significant speed boost since accessing the flash drive is faster than accessing the hard drive.
Note: You can verify that ReadBoost was setup on the USB Stick by opening the drive. You will see a file called
ReadyBoost and it will have a file type description of
ReadyBoost Cache File. The size of the file will also be the same as what you allocated towards ReadyBoost.
Also keep in mind that you can only have one active ReadyBoost usb drive per system.
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Written by PCWizKid on April 11th, 2008 with no comments.
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Microsoft Corp. has released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) to Windows Update today and the public as a separate download.
Interested Vista users can manually open Windows Update and download SP1. Users who have set Windows Update to automatically download updates will find the software automatically downloaded to their PCs in mid-April.
Users can download the
stand-alone installation package directly instead of doing the update. The installer comes in at 434MB for the 32-bit version and 726MB for the 64-bit edition. Microsoft plans to roll out SP1 next month to users who have Windows Update set to automatically download and install fixes.
Late Monday, Microsoft inadvertently confirmed that SP1 would hit the update service on Tuesday; before that, however, others, including the Malaysian Web site TechARP.com, had correctly pegged March 18 as the delivery date.
Remember, there are prerequisits to installing SP1, so Windows Update will detect if a user has certain drivers that must first be updated before installing SP1. Until those users have the updated drivers in place, Windows Update won't offer SP1.
Is your Vista running slow, need more Memory?
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Written by PCWizKid on March 18th, 2008 with no comments.
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Microsoft's Technet has a utility called "Windows Easy Transfer Companion" (WETC). It can copy key software programs from Windows XP to Windows Vista for those planning to migrate over and want to make sure that the apps still work.
Windows Vista contains a similar utility, however, this version runs both on the source Windows XP PC first by scanning you hard drive, gathering basic system information, and analyzing all installed software. You need to connect the Windows XP (Source PC) to the separate Windows Vista (Target PC) via network or a easy transfer USB cable.
The utility communicates with the Windows XP machine to display a list of all discovered applications which you select to be transferred (click picture below)
At the end, a status message tells you which programs were copied and whether errors occurred.
Here is a sample list of programs that have been transferred with all its settings successfully in the past using this utility:
| Program | Vendor | Versions |
| Acrobat | Adobe | 7 |
| Acrobat Reader | Adobe | 7, 7.0.5, 7.0.8 |
| AOL Instant Messenger | AOL | 5.9 |
| AOL Toolbar | AOL | 3 |
| Avant Browser | Avant Force | 11 |
| Cam Frog Video Chat | Camshare | 3.72 |
| Trillian | Cerulean Studios | 3.1 |
| Google Earth | Google | 3 |
| Google Talk | Google |
|
| Google Toolbar | Google | 2.0.114, 3.0.126.3, 4 |
| Windows Live Mail Desktop | Microsoft |
|
| Firefox | Mozilla | 1.0.7, 1.0.6, 2 |
| Netscape | Netscape | 7.2, 8.0.2, 8.0.4 |
| Opera | Opera | 8.5 |
| Eudora | Qualcomm | 6 |
| Skype | Skype | 2.0 |
| Yahoo Messenger | Yahoo! | 7, 8.1 |
| Program | Vendor | Versions |
| Call of Duty | Activision | 2 |
| Battlefield 2 | EA Games | 1 |
| Star Wars Battlefront | Lucas Arts | 2 |
Download the Utility directly from Microsoft hereOther Tips Users have watched
Written by PCWizKid on March 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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If your looking for a change in your desktop appearance and behavior, you might want to try the freeware version of
Real Desktop. It gives your ordinary desktop new life and turns it into
a next generation 3D Interactive Desktop.
The recommended system requirements are as follows:
- Windows® XP / Vista
- Windows® DirectX 9.0c
- AMD ATHLON™ XP 2400+ or higher (alternatively Intel® Pentium® 4)
- 512 MB main memory
- DirectX able graphic card: 128 MB NVIDIA® Geforce™ 6 or better,
ATI® Radeon™ 9700 or better - Screen resolution 1280 x 1024 at True Color (16 million colours)
- Internet connection
My initial thoughts were the amount of resources it probably uses up, but I was surprised to see it didnt take that much memory compared to my Firefox browser.
Also I loved how you can configure it to look the way you want with wallpaper and backgrounds giving it your personal touch.
You can stack icons, drag them anywhere on the desktop and flip them around. The Recycle Bin becomes a three-dimensional trash can. This certainly looks like a feature that could be a part of the next release of Windows 7 perhaps.
Its a free license to use if you get the lite version.
Download it for free instantly from the developers website.
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Written by PCWizKid on March 4th, 2008 with no comments.
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If your tired of the default windows cursors, and your stuck back in the 90's. Time to get a facelift and get with the times with CursorFX v2.0.
StarDock has released a free Cursor Theme Management utility which takes it to the next level allowing you to do the following:
| Cursors can be unlimited size |
| Fully anti-aliased cursors |
| Fully 32-bit alpha blended cursors |
| Animations and scripts |
| Cursors with normal and pressed states |
| Full featured theme editor |
| Fully featured graphic control panel |
| Fully configurable soft shadow |
So get ready to pimp your Windows XP or Vista system further with this free tool.
Get for free hundreds of cursor themes from
www.wincustomize.com that have been created by users for a cool new look. Import the packages of themed cursors into CursorFX and set it as your default.
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Written by PCWizKid on February 29th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Although on
Microsoft TechNet you will find a few toys and tweaks, the alternative to increasing performance still remains upto you. Meaning hack your way into config settings and manually set things up the way you want in the registry.
Here are is a sought after hack for Windows Vista many dont know about. Be sure to make a System Restore Checkpoint to backup your settings before doing any of these tweaks.
Unlock the Administrator account
Turning on the Administrator account is straightforward. First, open an elevated command prompt by typing cmd into the Search box on the Start menu, right-clicking the command prompt icon that appears at the top of the Start menu, then selecting Run as administrator.
Then enter this command and press Enter:
Net user administrator /active:yes
From now on, the Administrator account will appear as an option on the Welcome screen, along with any user accounts you may have set up. Use it like any other account. Be aware that it won't have a password yet, so it's a good idea to set a password for it.
If you want to disable the account and hide it, enter this command at an elevated command prompt and press Enter:
Net user administrator /active:no
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Written by PCWizKid on February 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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more...Did you know that Windows Vista has a free screen capture tool? Its called the Snipping Tool. The Snipping Tool allows you to take full or partial screen captures of your windows or desktop and save them as snippets of images on your computer. Though this is a basic screen shot tool its quite powerful since it has the capability to allow custom portions of your screen to be captures and even included a few editing options.
If you are looking to take screen shots and snippets of your desktop/screen, follow my video tutorial which steps you through using the Snipping Tool.
The Snipping Tool allows you to capture your screen using four methods and then save these snips as a JPG, GIF, PNG, or MHT file.
|
The capture methods that can be used to take snips are
free-form,
rectangular,
window, and
full-screen.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The
Tablet PC Optional Components feature must be enabled for the Snipping Tool to be available on your computer. If you need to enable this Window feature please see my video tutorial for Tip #12 [
Watch the video] Once enabled you will be able to use the tool.
The Snipping Tool OptionsIn the Snipping Tool the "Options" button has various preferences on how you want to manage your captures.
These options are split into Application and Selections groups 
|
Application Options:Hide Instruction TextWhen selected, hides the instruction text in the main Snipping Tool window.
Always copy snips to the Clipboard If this is enabled it will copy all snips to your Windows clipboard so you can paste them into another application such as word processors or other image manipulation programs.
Include URL below snips (HTML only)With this enabled if you save your snip as a Single File HTML, or MHT document, and the snip was taken from an Internet Explorer browser window it will show the url of the page that you took the snip from.
Prompt to save snips before exitingWhen selected, when you exit the snipping tool it will prompt you to save any snips that were created.
Display icon in the Quick Launch ToolbarWhen enabled an icon for the Snipping Tool will be placed in your Quick Launch Toolbar.
Show screen overlay when Snipping Tool is activeWhen selected, when you are creating the snip the Snipping Tool interface will disappear.
Selection Options:
Ink Color:
This will change the color of the selection border when you create a snip.
Show selection ink after snips are captured
When enabled the selection border will be shown, using the color selected in the Ink Color option, around the snip.
Different selection types that you can use to take a snippet.
Free-form Snip.
Draw an irregular line, such as a circle or a triangle, around an object.
Rectangular Snip.
Draw a precise line by dragging the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.
Window Snip.
Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture.
Full-screen Snip.
Immediately capture the entire screen when you select this type of snip.
Save it or Send itOnce you have taken your screen capture to save just use the File menu or the
Save As button enter a name for the snippet chose a location to save on your PC and click Save. Optionally you can send the snip by e-mail also by clicking the Send Snip option.
Watch my Video Tutorial for step by step instructions.
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Written by PCWizKid on February 21st, 2008 with comments disabled.
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If your a Windows user you've probably had the occasional desktop freeze. In most cases you would just restart your PC losing any unsaved data in open programs. However, you maybe able to salvage what your working on without restating your PC.
3. Click the Processes tab, then scroll down to find the explorer.exe process.
