How Did Ya?
January 14th, 2007Friday, March 3. 2006
Give XP Home Features of XP Pro
This hack allows XP home (oem or upgrade) install to have all features of xp pro. This includes remote desktop. I stumbled across this great hack on digg.com but the link led to a 404 page. A little disappointed I did some looking and I found a cached copy and I thought I would share it. Please keep in mind that this was not my handy work.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 12:28 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, March 2. 2006
Who Needs a Fancy Welcome Screen in Windows XP
I miss the old days when logging in was all about logging in. There was no list of the available users to login. There was no fuzzy animals that represent who that may be. The days of just freaking typing in a user name or password are gone or are they? Here is a little trick to get back your beloved old school login screen.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 09:04 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, March 1. 2006
Automatic Logon to Windows XP
I hate typing. My friends and co-workers always laugh at me as I’m more willing to do several mouse clicks than type one word. Logging in is also the case. Why login if you are the only person who uses that computer. In this little lesson we will show you how to make Windows XP automatically login.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 09:20 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Tuesday, February 28. 2006
Specify Source Path to Windows XP Installation Files
Don’t you hate it when Windows prompts you to insert the Windows CD when you are doing some system changes? Well we have the answer for you and it does not involve you keeping the cd in your cd drive.
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Posted by Mike at 10:14 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Monday, February 27. 2006
Toggle Power Down Options In Windows XP
This isn’t really new to Windows XP, the ability to have the computer power off when you shut down Windows has been there since the beginning. In Windows 98 there was a problem with power management so a lot of people had problems with that version but that has since been fixed. It’s just nice to be able to control whether your computer powers off or not when you shut down. We will give you the power.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 11:54 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Sunday, February 26. 2006
Enable Clear Type In Windows XP
Clear Type is a technology that Microsoft introduced in Windows XP to make your font a little clearer. This dramatically enhances the clarity in LCD monitors. Here is how to enable it for all and just one user if you like.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 14:12 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Saturday, February 25. 2006
Remove the Content Advisor Password In Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer has a feature called the Content Advisor. The Content Advisor is a parental control feature in Internet Explorer that allows you to restrict the sites that can be browsed to. A really great idea but when you loose the password to this feature what is a person to do? Here is how you delete the password.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 09:57 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Friday, February 24. 2006
Play DVD Movies in Windows Media Player Without Extra Software.
Windows Media Player in Windows Xp did not come standard with DVD playback enabled. Microsoft suggested that 3rd party software be installed like Power DVD to enable the support. Seems kinda odd having a media player not able to play a large standard like DVD’s. In this walkthrough we will show you how to setup Media Player to play DVD’s without any additional software.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 22:12 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, February 23. 2006
Remove Unused Drivers From Windows XP
Device drivers are pieces of software that Windows XP will use to interact with hardware in or attached to your computer. Without a device driver your devices will not work. When you install a device driver Windows XP will keep it for future use even when Windows XP is not using that device. If you are not using that device any more for an example a digital camera. Why keep the device driver on your system. Here is how to remove them.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 12:31 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, February 16. 2006
Run Command in the Vista Start Menu
Way back in the good old days of XP there was a little button in the start menu called the Run command. I miss it soo. So we are going to show you how to get it back in the start menu of Windows Vista.
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Posted by Mike in Windows Vista How-to at 16:39 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Enable the Avalon Engine In Vista
Windows Vista inherited a new set of special effects that occur on the desktop doing day to day tasks. The engine that runs all of this and other graphical tasks is called the Avalon Engine. This engine is present in the current beta copy of Windows Vista but is not enabled by default. To top it all off only some ATI graphic cards are only supported.
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Posted by Mike in Windows Vista How-to at 16:27 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, February 15. 2006
Speed up Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 6 has been around for a while and its been a good browser. Since new alternatives like Firefox and Opera have come out we now know that, yes there is faster browsing out there. Internet Explorer can be as fast after trying out a few tips in this article.
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Posted by Mike at 15:59 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Tuesday, February 14. 2006
Good Tools
Here are some really great tools that a bunch of us use all of the time. These tools are not in any order or category. If there are any tools you wish to add please let us know at help@howdidya.com.
Autoruns
www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html
AutoRuns shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Services, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can highlight an entry and click the “jump to” button to launch Regedit with the selected entry. In addition to startup programs, Autoruns also displays a list of Services, Scheduled Tasks, Winsock
Providers, Internet Explorer BHOs and more - each of them can also be enabled/disabled.
HijackThis
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
HijackThis is a tool, that lists all installed browser add-on, buttons, startup items and allows you to inspect, and optionally remove selected items. The program can create a backup of your original settings and also ignore selected items. Additional features include a simple list of all startup items, default start page, online updates and more. Intended for advanced users.
Ccleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
CCleaner is a tool to clean your system from temporary and unnecessary files that accumulate over time. This also includes rather thorough cleaning of Internet and PC usage tracks like browser cache, recently used files, web sites visited and more. You can select the items that you want cleaned, and also specify cookies that should not be deleted. In addition, the program comes with a registry scanner that scans for invalid references (advanced users) and options to start cleaning automatically or from the command line.
BootVis
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664
Customer research shows a frequently requested feature that users want from their PCs is fast system startup, whether from cold boot or when resuming from standby or hibernation. The Windows development team at Microsoft has taken bold steps in making fast startup PCs a reality with the Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system.
Posted by Mike in Good Tools at 00:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Saturday, February 11. 2006
How to Speed Up your Network Performance in Windows XP. For Real.
There are so many programs that will tweak your TCP/IP settings. The truth is changing your MTU or time to live (TTL) settings will only do so much. Windows XP is already set for broadband connections so there is really not much to do.. Most of the time regular use, installing programs and updating your computer will slow down your computer. In this tutorial we will show you how to maintain a better performing computer for broadband use.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 14:02 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Clear the Start-up folder in Windows XP.
The startup folder is the folder that will launch any programs or shortcuts when the computer starts up. The fewer programs that you have starting up when you power on the computer the faster the computer will boot. Keep in mind that some programs need to run when windows starts up so it may be best to backup this folder before you start.
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Posted by Mike in Windows XP How-to at 13:57 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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