When you like tech, bringing some (or a lot) of it into the car is a big deal. Here’s three ways to bring some or more of your electronic goodness into what you drive without breaking the bank.

Cigarette Lighter USB Adapter

Got something powered by USB that you’d love to have in the car? Use one of these little guys and it will fit the bill nicely. Cheap, too. Only 5 dollars. If you shop around enough you might even be able to score one for less than that.

Non-Slip Dashboard Mat

This little dashboard mat stays put and "sticks" whatever you place on it. They are made of material that is non-slip and "hold" things like cell phones and iPods. No installation required. Plop on the dash, put stuff on it, done deal. If one is not available at your local electronics store, try this eBay search. Prices are as low as 3 dollars. The better ones are washable.

Coffee Cup Power Inverter

Sure, you’ve seen power inverters for cars before that give you "three prong" outlets – but have you ever seen one shaped like a coffee cup? This one is, and it’s only 30 dollars. Sound like a lot? Not really when you realize how convenient this thing is. Usually when you plug in an inverter it is in a decidedly inconvenient spot, not to mention the inverter itself is large and might even scrape up against your leg while in use. This one has its own spot and it’s already in your car. Oh, and by the way, this also has a 500mA USB charging port on it too! You may not even need the cigarette lighter USB adapter above if you get one of these…

There are utilities like the freeware CCleaner software that can easily let you list and modify auto-run programs from the Windows XP system registry like this:

Above: In CCleaner, click Tools (large icon on left) then Startup (white button in middle column) to see this list.

However if you’re the type that would rather do this the "old fashioned way", you can get to this information and get the same editing ability by using the tried-and-true registry editor.

You can get to the registry editor in one of two ways.

1. Click Start / Run / type regedit / click OK.
2. Right click on a blank area of the desktop, click New from the context menu that appears, click Shortcut, type regedit in the dialog box that appears (no need to click Browse), click Next, click Finish. This will place a regedit icon on your desktop that you can double-click to launch the Registry Editor.

Inside the registry editor you have to expand some folders – in a specific order – to get to the "run" list.

The order is as follows:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• SOFTWARE
• Microsoft
• Windows
• CurrentVersion
• Run

It should look something like this when you’re done:

From here you have the same modify/delete ability as you do with CCleaner, except using the built-in registry editor instead.

IMPORANT NOTE: Messing around with the Windows registry can seriously screw up your Windows installation if done wrong.

It is highly suggested to BACKUP your registry first. This is done easily via the registry editor by simply clicking File then Export. Do this before making any registry changes. Make sure when exporting your "Export Range" is ticked as "All".

Like this (see bottom left):

Didn’t find what you were looking for in Run?

Maybe it’s not there. Maybe it’s in the Start menu’s "Startup" folder instead.

Click Start, All Programs, Startup and check that menu. You can remove any menu entry there by simply right-clicking on it and left-clicking Delete.

If you delete something on a goof, don’t worry because it’s in the Recycle Bin where you can put it back in case you make a mistake.

Just remember there is no Recycle Bin ability with the registry editor. Your only means of restoring something you deleted is by importing a .reg file you exported as explained above.