Seeing the default Windows XP screen saver when nobody is logged on isn’t always the most interesting thing to look at. Here’s a quick way to change which screensaver gets displayed: Go to Start > Run and type regedit. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Desktop Change the SCRNSAVE.EXE value from logon.scr to any other screen saver with [...]

If you have been using Windows for a while, chances are you have run into problems at some point and been directed to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base. Here are two ways to access a specific article, so long as you have the number: The first way is to copy and paste this URL into your address [...]

While this is a simple enough tip, not everyone is always familiar with keyboard shortcuts and what you can and can’t highlight. So, when you come across an error message dialog, take your mouse and highlight the text, press CTRL+C to copy the text. Open any text editor (for example Notepad in Windows, gEdit in [...]

This tip is probably most useful for family computers with kids who use the computer and want to monitor/restrict their computer usage to some degree. Basically, you have to define (via command line) the hours that the user is allowed to login. Go to Start > Run and type cmd. You can specify the hours [...]

In follow-up to an earlier post regarding disabling the Vista UAC confirmations, here is an easier way to disable the dialog: Press the Windows Key + R and type “msconfig” (without the quotes) into the run dialog that pops up. Click on the “Tools” tab and scroll down and click once on the “Disable UAC” [...]

If you use the Windows XP search function enough, you might dislike the way it’s set up.  Windows 2000 had a much simpler search interface that didn’t involve clicking around on menus or having to deal with the little dog avatar. If you haven’t already, download and install TweakUI (read about it here).  This tool [...]

If you’re an AVG user, you’ve probably noticed that at the bottom of your emails, you can see a “Scanned By AVG” message appended to the bottom of your messages. To stop this message from being attached: Go into the AVG Control Center. Double click on “E-Mail” Scanner. Click “Configure”. Uncheck “Certify Mail” under both [...]