A very handy trick Windows Vista users can take advantage of is the ability to launch programs via the desktop right-click menu. This article explains exactly how to do it. This tweak is extremely useful for launching your most common applications as it can be much faster than typing items into the Run dialog box, using Quick Launch or tracking down items in...

Windows XP users who have taken advantage of the excellent user interface control tool, Tweak UI are probably well aware of the fine tuning it offers. Now Windows Vista users have a similar tool available at their disposal: Ultimate Windows Tweaker. The author themselves title the tool ‘Tweak UI For Windows Vista’: Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a Tweak...

By default, the Windows taskbar is only a ‘single line’ high. For lightweight users, this is typically ok, but if you have lots of items in your System Tray or you like to make use of Quick Launch, then you will find yourself with not much room for open programs. A simple solution is to increase the height of your taskbar. By increasing the height,...

Windows XP has a myraid number of aspects which can be tweaked. Many through option dialogs, miscellaneous utilities or by changing registry entries. On this note, I thought I would pass along a huge catalog of XP fixes and tweaks. Most of the entries here accomplish the task by using either a VBS script or a REG (registry) file. You can use scripts on this site...

Every Windows user is familiar with the the standard commands from the control bar (Maximize, Minimize, Close, Move, Size and Restore). If you want to add a few more commands to this list then take a look at PowerMenu. This free add-on enables you to control the following for each Window you have open:Transparency CPU priority Always on top Minimize to...

Firefox has lots of tweaks/customizations you can make to its behavior which you cannot get to through the normal preferences dialog. To view these options, in your address bar enter: ‘about:config’. When you access the configuration settings, you will be presented with a warning so take care with what you modify. As you will see when you are...

Yesterday Rich posted an article on how nVidia users can make their taskbar transparent. Well, if you are not an nVidia user and want to apply this effect, give a look at the appropriately named program: Transparent Taskbar. As you would expect, the program description is pretty simple: Transparent TaskBar is a free tool that lets you to easily adjust the...

I came across an extremely well put together site on Windows XP this week called ‘Optimize Guides‘, and since I know a lot of readers are still on XP I thought it would be good to pass along. This site covers everything from malware protection to browsers to an expansive list of freeware applications. Of course, the most popular feature of this site...

Although all the new features in Windows Vista are nice, they can slow down your computer. One of the biggest things you can do to speed up Vista, is by have a minimum of 2 gigabytes of ram. Although I had 3 gigabytes of ram and at times still found it to be a little slow. So here are some tips to help speed up Vista: 1. Use Windows Defender Windows Defender is...