Start Internet Explorer 9 in Private Mode

Start Internet Explorer 9 in Private Mode

For all you Internet Explorer 9 users out there, how would you like to learn a quick trick so that every time you start IE, it runs in Private mode right from the start ?

What we’re going to do is create a desktop shortcut for IE and set a switch to make it start in InPrivate mode. So, right-click on your desktop, select New and choose Shortcut.



Now, if you’re using a 32 bit version of Windows, copy this text and put it in the path box:

“C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” -private



For those out there running 64 bit windows, you have to change it a bit. Use this line:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” -private



Notice that in both cases we put -private after the quoted path.

When you’re done, hit Next, give your shortcut a name and you’re good to go.

Note: if you get an error while inputting this path, you might have a different version of windows and should try the other path.

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Auto-Complete commands in Win 7 Command Prompt

Auto-Complete commands in Win 7 Command Prompt

Did you know that there’s a way to auto complete a path or file name in the Windows 7 Command Prompt? 

 
Here’s how!

Open a Command Prompt by clicking Start, then typing cmd in the Search Box. Right Click the Command Prompt icon in the results that appear and select Run as Administrator.



In the Command Prompt window, type in the change directory command, like this:



Now hit the Tab key.



*Poof* -the path is completed!

If you keep pressing the Tab key, the Command Prompt will put forth the next applicable file or folder that’s consistent with what you’ve typed so far.

 

Note: This may not work if you don't open the prompt as Administrator

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What are Pen Flicks in a Touch screen Laptop

What are Pen Flicks in a Touch screen Laptop

I think the reason people love touch screens is because of how natural the hand gestures feel. For example, to scroll down a document, it feels better to just swipe down instead of pressing a little arrow key. If you’re looking to bring some of these intuitive gestures to your Windows computer, then might I humbly recommend that you enable Pen flicks.

To utilize pen flicks, your computer must be touch screen, or your laptop’s trackpad must support gestures. If you have a graphics tablet, then that will also allow pen flicks as well.

Begin by pressing the Start button, and selecting Control Panel.

Select the Classic view, and double click Pen and Input Devices.




Now choose the Flicks tab, and check the box labeled Use flicks to perform common actions quickly and easily.




Now you have two options: the navigation flicks, or the navigational flicks with editing. I personally prefer the latter, as it allows me to copy and paste with ease. Choose the option that best suits you, and of course, you can always change this setting.

If you select Customize, you can hand select what action a flick in a certain direction will perform. If you’d like to add a custom keyboard shortcut, just select the add option. For example. I made it so that a downward flick will close the program using the keyboard shortcut Alt+F4.




Finally, one last setting I’d like to bring to your attention is the flick sensitivity. If you find that you have to repeat a gesture several times before Windows recognizes it, then you should make the sensitivity more relaxed. However, if you find gestures are occurring by accident, than you should move the slider to the precise setting.




I hope this setting makes your computer feel a little bit more natural. Enjoy!

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Network problems and Command Prompt

Network problems and Command Prompt

You don’t have to be an IT expert to troubleshoot pesky network and Internet connection problems. All you need is the Command Prompt utility. Any computer users familiar with MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 recognize it. Well, that utility hasn’t gone away; it’s still around, just hidden in the background.

Here’s how to access it, and how to troubleshoot basic network problems from your computer.

Press the Windows key on your keyboard. Type the text cmd in the search box – in XP this is called “Run” – and press Enter.

Basic rule of troubleshooting: always start with the closest possible source. You need to check your own computer for network connectivity first. Type ping 127.0.0.1 and press Enter. Your Command Prompt window should look like this if your computer’s network card has no problems:




You’ve just sent four requests for dummy data to your computer’s “loopback” IP address and it (hopefully) replied to each one. An IP address is a unique tag for your computer that tells the server where to send data; the loopback address is used for testing your computer’s network card. If there were intermittent problems or if your card were completely non-functional, the ping would have experienced some loss.

The next step up the chain is your default gateway, which is in most cases the network router. Any data entering or exiting the network has to pass through the router. To diagnose the router, you need to ping its IP address. Type ipconfig at the command prompt and look for the entry next to “Default Gateway.”



Now, ping your router the same way you pinged the loopback address: type ping . In this example, you’re pinging the default gateway at 10.0.0.1. If the connection between your computer and the router is strong and stable, all four of your data packets should get a response. If not, your router has connectivity problems. As a note, wireless connections are prone to drop signal, so keep that in mind when working with a wireless router.


Let’s say you’ve tested your computer and router and that everything checks out, but you still can’t connect to a webpage. So, perform the ping test on it. Let’s use Yahoo! for an example:



Yahoo! works. Just to be sure, do another ping test, this time to Google:



Google’s homepage checks out. If you were able to ping two remote sites successfully, you don’t have a problem with your network or Internet connection.

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What is 32 Bit and 64 Bit - Explained

What is 32 Bit and 64 Bit - Explained

In one context, 32-bit and 64-bit refers to how a CPU (computer processor) handles information. These terms also indicate the number of bits that comprise a single data element (for example, a pixel in an image). In that case, when dealing with resource hogging data like images, audio, or video, there is a distinct advantage to a 64-bit system. However, when writing emails or text documents, the benefits of 64-bit may be less apparent.

What is a bit?

A bit (short for binary digit) is the smallest unit of digital information, represented by either 0 or 1. Arranging a series of bits in sequence creates a binary math language that the processing chips can understand. As a result, CPUs are identified by their ability to process these sequences (32-bit or 64-bit). Eight consecutive bits in such a sequence equals a byte (short for binary term). Large numbers of bytes are then combined to create kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, etc.

Not confusing enough?

The terms, 32-bit and 64-bit indicate the width of the registers, which are storage areas within the computer. The registers can contain either the address location in the computer memory where data is stored, or the data itself. All computer data is processed using information represented in these registers.

Each instruction (the most basic computer command) can process the number of bits indicated in the registers. So, a 64-bit machine processes a 64-bit width register with each instruction. Likewise, a 32-bit machine processes a 32-bit width register per instruction. While it would seem that a 64-bit processor would naturally be faster, the number of instructions executed per cycle (the fundamental unit of time measurement in a device) indicates actual processing speed, so that may not always be the case.

It’s the combination of hardware and software elements which make up the computer architecture that determines processing speed. This will be discussed in part two of this series, where we’ll take a more in-depth look at processors, memory, and how hardware and software interact to improve (or–if not correctly balanced–reduce) overall performance.

Speed

Processing speed, referred to as clock speed, is generally measured in megahertz (MHz) which amounts to one million cycles per second, or gigahertz (GHz) equaling one billion cycles per second.

A computer’s architecture is a significant contributor to that processing speed, so CPUs (computer processors) with the same clock speed may not perform functions at the same rate. While a fixed number of clock cycles is required for each command (instruction), a faster clock will execute more instructions per second, and the machine will perform those instructions more quickly.

However, clock cycles (or clock ticks), like so many other terms in this bewildering lexicon jungle, is a term with multiple meanings. On one hand, a clock cycle is as described above, the relative speed of a processor, but it also refers to the internal system clock, which always runs at 66 MHz (66 million clock ticks per second). So, more powerful CPUs can execute instructions more rapidly than their less sophisticated counterparts, while still displaying the same number of units per cycle.

Memory

While the clock speed of the CPU is the primary indicator of processing capability, RAM (Random-Access Memory) also plays a significant role in performance. When a CPU requests information from the hard drive, it’s put into RAM, where it can be accessed with greater efficiency. But, if the memory (RAM) isn’t sufficient, the information may have to be returned to the hard drive before the next request can be answered, thereby slowing overall performance.

Hardware and Software

Hardware and drivers (the software that controls the hardware) must match the device’s system type, and this should be a primary consideration when upgrading a 32-bit system.

What all this means is that, with each operation, 64-bit processors can handle bundles of information that are twice the size of those processed by 32-bit systems, and the speed at which these bundles are delivered is determined by the overall balance of system resources (RAM, processors, etc.). In researching this article, I was directed to an analogy of a two lane highway that had been converted to a four lane highway to relieve bottlenecks. But, while that’s a good comparison, the benefit is more than just a method of efficiently moving traffic. 64-bit is not just an increased amount of data per bundle, it’s also higher quality data, as images, audio, and video files comprised of 64-bit elements are richer, with more depth and texture, than those made up of 32-bit elements.

The next and final part of this article, How to Determine if a System is 64-Bit Capable, will explain how to tell whether a system is 32-bit or 64-bit, and whether upgrades are possible (or practical).

I hope this has been as enlightening to read as it was to write.

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Speed Up Google Chrome

Speed Up Google Chrome

Well Google lunched new version of Google chrome which is much faster and stable, You also loving it and it’s becoming your favorite browser as you simply loves it’s clean interface and speed of browsing. Here are some good tips which can improve your experience further and you will love this fantastic browser more than ever.

Just follow these tips and see how Chrome improves in performance -

Disables usage statistics of Google Chrome

This option is used to help in Development of Google chrome, It send your usage data to Google so that based on that they can further improve Chrome. But if you are worried about system performance you should disable it . To disable this go to tools menu > Options > Advanced and uncheck the check box which says Send usage data to Google….

Disable DNS Preload in Google Chrome

This will prevent Google chrome to keep DNS info in their cache. Most of time it is unnecessary if you have a good connection of  at least 256kbps or more. It is recommended only for slow dial up connection or Mobile users who actually spend a lot f time in DNS query during browsing.  to disable this select tools menu of Google Chrome and select “Options.” In the next window,  go to the “Advanced” tab and uncheck the “Use DNS preload ….”

Disable anti-phishing filter

If you are advanced web user and you know how a phishing site look like or you know how to prevent from them you can disable this option. But if you are not at all comfortable working without phishing filters or don;t want to take risk you should keep it as it is . Disabling this not only saves your CPU time but also save your Internet bandwidth.  This option can also be disabled from Tools Menu > Options > Advanced.

Removes navigational data regularly

All of the browsers cache the Navigation data and other info for faster access to web pages you frequently visit. But if your cache size is big or it contains very old pages which you hardly visit once or twice in a month it will start performing negative for you, as web pages will load faster but they Browsers perform worse when navigation data is saved. So it is important to remove navigational data  frequently. To delete this in Chrome, go to Tools menu and choose the option “Remove navigation data” and choose “Delete data for this period” and not the option “All”. So it will remove old data and will keep recent data do this once in a week at least.

Disable Useless function which we don’t use normally –

To options that are mentioned below you need to edit the properties of Chrome shortcut which you are using to start the browser. To Change it, right click on the Chrome icon and choose “Properties.” this will open a windows with the  “Shortcut” tab, in this tab there is a box called “Destination”. You have to change things in this box itself.

E.g. To disable Java box,

• if  you are using Windows Vista it should go like this — : “C:Users\AppDataLocalGoogleChromeApplicationchrome.exe -disable-java”
• and if you are using Windows XP: “C:Documents and Settings%username% Local SettingsApplication DataGoogleChrome.exe”

The options which we are adding after the full path of chrome can be used one after the other leaving a space between.   You don’t need to write the entire path every time you are using a new options. Here are the option which can be used -

Disable-dev-tools – This will disable Developers tool which is not used by a normal user for sure.

Disable-logging – This will disable looging of browser activity, This log files are useful only in case of Crash or Other error which prevent you from using browsers. if you are experiencing any such problem and need to know the reason you can enable this option. but in general you don’t need these log files. By disabling this you will certainly save CPU RAM and Hard disk space.

Disable-metrics-system – This option will disable gathering of Usage Statistics data. This is used by Google and we don’t need it any how so you can safely disable this option.

Disable-metrics-reporting – If you disabled Metrics system there is no point in keeping Metrics reporting On, as there won’t be any data to send across. Disable it for sure.

Disable-java – Java on the web is rarely used these days and it greatly slow downs your browsers performance. If you not running any online application which uses Java or Java Applets you can safely disable this feature. This will prevent you from playing number of Online Java Games though. (like Yahoo Games)

Disable-java script – This will disable all kinds of JavaScript from being run on the web pages you visit. This is not recommended at  all as most of the sites these days are using some kind of JavaScript, to display pages. By Disabling JavaScript you will not be able to  see these site properly and they will behave improprly. This is why disabling JavaScript is not recommended.

Disable-plugins – This will disable all plugins including Flash player and other media player. After applying this modification you won’t be able to see a lot of media sites properly including YouTube. If you understand impact of disabling this go ahead and do it otherwise don;t use this option.

Disable-images – This will disable all images on all Webpages you browse, if you are using low bandwidth conection like GPRS or Dial Up it will be very useful for you as it will save a lot of bandwidth for you. This will make your browser an text only browser. So be sure you need it that way before making these changes.

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How to hide usernames in Windows 7

How to hide usernames in Windows 7

The login screen of Windows Vista and Windows 7 makes it very easy to see the user name of the last person that logged in. This may be fine on personal computers, but on shared computers, this could be a security threat. A potential intruder would only have to find out the password, which is very possible with the right software. To solve this problem, we have to change a value in the registry. Don’t worry; it is easier than it sounds. But before we change anything, it is best to make a backup of the registry.

Note: If you’re uncomfortable editing the Windows Registry do not attempt this tip.


1. Press [Windows Key] + R to bring up Run.

2. Type “regedit” (without quotes) into the text box and hit enter.




3. In the Registry Editor, click on File -> Export…




4. Enter “backup” (without quotes) as name and save the file to the desktop.




Now we can start editing the registry…

1. Press [Windows Key] + R to bring up Run.

2. Type “notepad” (without quotes) into the text box and hit enter.






3. Insert the following text into the document that opens up:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
“dontdisplaylastusername”=dword:1

4. Press Ctrl + S to save the document. As a name, type “loginscreen.reg” and save it on the desktop. (IMPORTANT: enter the name with quotes)




5. Go to your desktop and double click on “loginscreen.reg”. When you are asked if you want to allow the program to make changes, click “Yes”.

6. You can now delete the loginscreen.reg file and enjoy your secure PC!

To change your login screen back to the default setting, repeat the above steps with one small change. The line:

“dontdisplaylastusername”=dword:1

needs to be changed to:

“dontdisplaylastusername”=dword:0



Note: In case you didn’t know, the registry is the part of the computer that stores all its settings. Do not allow programs or files to make changes to the registry unless you know they are trustworthy. It is usually a good idea to make a backup of the registry before editing it. By doing that, you can restore the registry afterwards if anything goes wrong. You can restore the registry by simply double clicking on the exported file.

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Facebook Login Notifications

Facebook Login Notifications

Hey, Facebook users – after a very long time I have again come to my place. My Blog. Was a bit busy settling my second career and with Facebook. But I am back now. Did you know that you can set up India's favourite social networking site to send you an e-mail or even a text message if anyone tries to access your account from a new device?

It’s great for that extra layer of security – and I highly recommend it!

Here’s how:

While logged in to Facebook, click the arrow next to your name, then Account Settings. 

 

 

 

Once at the Account Settings control panel click the security category off to the left, then click Edit. 

 

 

Now simply choose how you’d like to receive a notification when/if your account is accessed from a new/different computer. Click Save Changes when you’re finished!

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