Top 5 Windows XP niggles solved.

To be honest I have far more than 5 Windows XP niggles as I guess you do but I thought I would start at 5 why 5 I am not sure but hey you have to start somewhere:

1. Windows XP reboots for no apparent reason.

STOP errors cause XP to reboot by default. Right click My Computer and choose Properties – > Advanced. Click Settings underneath Startup and Recovery Options. Uncheck Automatically restart and click OK.

2. File associatons hijacked by a new program.

Open any folder and choose Tools – > Folder Options from the Explorer menu. On the File Types tab, scroll through to the file concerned. Click Change, browse to the application you want to associate with and click OK.

3. Sometimes an operating system can be too helpful. Do you want to get rid of Microsoft Windows XP balloon tips that appear when you leave your mouse hovering over many function icons for too long?

Note that this affects only the Balloon Tips, not the more ubiquitous tool tips that appear in most Windows XP- compatible applications.

There’s a fairly easy way to do it, but you do have to touch your Registry just make sure that you back it up before you do anything.

Here’s what you do:

• Select Run from the Start button.
• Type in regedit in the Open: field.
• Hit Enter or click OK. This opens the Registry Editor.
• Select the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then follow the folder path \software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\advanced\.
• From the Registry Edit menu, select Edit/New/DWORD Value. A new value will appear in the right-hand pane.
• Type EnableBalloonTips and hit Enter.
• Close the Registry Editor.
• Log off from Windows XP and then log on again to enable the change.

4. Mouse buttons reversed (left click becomes right click and vice versa).

Launch the Mouse applet in Control Panel (classic view). Select the buttons tab and ensure that the “Switch primary and secondary buttons” box is not ticked. Click OK. Here’s another tip click the pointers tab and change your mouse pointer for something less boring, there are also a number of good websites that let you download more pointers into this panel.

5. This one is not really a niggle but I find Windows Explorer just too basic and lacks much functionality, but hey try Directory Opus this little beauty will get you hooked.

Do you have any Windows XP niggles if so let me know and I will publish them.

RSS explained..

Did you know that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is a convenient way of staying up-to-date, without having to trawl the Internet for the relevant areas of interest, for example blog entries, news headlines or podcasts etc. It’s akin to a ticker type service and everything you need can be delivered directly to your desktop. Most sites have some form of RSS feeds and can be read using software called a “feed reader” or an “aggregator”. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feeds link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser, there are many software applications that you can use for example Google or Yahoo, but my favourite is Netvibes as it is very easy to use and set up, it has other handy tools but best of all you do not need to download it as it is a web based application which means you can access it on any computer.

G.ho.st updated.

I thought I would just update you on an earlier post as the guys at G.ho.st have added a few updates, you can now view MS Office documents (.xls, .ppt and .doc) on your G.ho.st desktop, play MP3 files, and there is even a simple file sharing mechanism on which you can choose to publish and share your files with friends and they are getting closer to a full browser all of which are safe to run. Not bad for free.

Safari maybe not so goodie..

I thought after my post yesterday I would have a quick look at this browser and download it onto my pc, yes I have to admit it did have a nice look to it but as far as the fastest Web browser in the world I didnt really think it was any faster than Firefox or even IE7, well maybe a little bit faster than IE7. I must admit I didnt use it for very long but noticed that it uses a lot of memory. Its also worth noting that a few security issues have been found in Safari.

Oh well it was worth a try, back to Firefox then.

1 Billion PCs by End of 2008

Did you know that by the end of 2008 there will be 1.000.000.000 computers all around the world, a number that will double itself in just five more years. The reason: the emerging markets of countries such as Brazil, China, India or Russia, which will be responsible for 775 million new PCs and laptop computers. Not only is access to computers beneficial to those users, it also will represent a big bump in sales for PC manufacturers and sellers.

Safari so good..

Apple have released Safari 3 now for the Windows platform, Apple have stated that it is the fastest and most easiest browser in the world. Here are a few of its features,

1. Blazing perfomance.
2. Elegant user interface.
3. Pop up blocking.
4. Tabbed browsing.
5. Private browsing.

I am not knocking the browser but it just seems to me to be a clone of Mozillas Firefox browser, however I might just review this and let you know. The download file size is 14.5mb compared to Firefoxs 5.7mb nearly 3 times as large I wonder if it is 3 times better? If any of you have tried it I would be interested what you think of it.

Have you seen a G.ho.st.

I recently wrote about Web 2.0 and how great some of the web sites are, I recently started playing around with a web site called Ghost which basically is a Web based Desktop with some built in applications. Although at the moment it is very basic, keep your eye on it as the Guys who own and run it have big plans (coming in July I believe). What I do like about it is you can use the FTP server and they give you 3GB for free so it is great for uploading any files that you may need or want to view at work or if you travel etc.

Give it go.

Backup or else..

The other day I went to access my photos folder (over 3,000 pictures in here) and suddenly my hard drive crashed, OK I thought reboot and all will be OK, not so, cutting a long story short my hard drive had developed a fault and was no good. Although I do back up all files and folders etc onto DVD when I eventually took out the DVD that had the photos on, what I hadn’t realised was that I had not backed up this folder for some time and therefore lost nearly 6 months of pictures. What made matters worse are a lot of them are of my 4 1/2 year old daughter and I can never replace these, OK so this is my fault but a lesson learned.

What I am trying to get across to you is backup all your documents etc on a regular basis or else you could loose a lot of work, not to mention a lot of your time that it would take to recreate some of the files that were lost and almost certainly a lot of other files and folders would be lost forever.

7,000 to loose their jobs at Dell.

Dell the PC manufacture is set to loose at least 7,000 jobs, the US firm employs more than 78,700 staff worldwide

The PC maker has struggled with falling sales and rising costs, prompting founder Michael Dell to take direct charge of the firm earlier this year.

Mr Dell said the job losses would be “difficult” but stressed they were critical if the firm was to deliver better value to customers.

Web 2.0 anyone.

Web 2.0 technology in my opinion is a great idea, there are so many web sites that let you interact with them that I have now lost count, however over the last 6 months one of the best I have found to keep track of all those RSS sites and other interesting web sites is www.netvibes.com.

Let me know your best Web 2.0 site this could get interesting.

For those who dont know what Web 2.0 is here is a description:

Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2003 and popularized by the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004, refers to a perceived second-generation of Web based communities and hosted services such as social networking sites, wikis and folksonomies that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. O’Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted.

Though the term suggests a new version of the Web, it does not refer to an update to World Wide Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways systems developers have used the web platform.

I hope this helps.