Tips Universe

Tired of the boring screensavers in Windows? Why not use your photos as your screensaver to display pictures of your pet, family members or your last vacation?

1. Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel

2. Double click the Display icon.

3. The Display Properties box will pop up. Click the Screen Saver tab.

4. Under Screensaver click the down arrow button and select My Picture Slideshow

5. Windows will look for the photos in the My Pictures folder by default. To change the My Pictures folder to another folder click Settings.

6. The My Pictures Screen Saver Options box will appear. Click Browse and locate the folder where your pictures are stored. You can also change other options about the slideshow here such as the length the photos are shown, size of the photos, etc.

Annoyed by the balloon tips that pop up in the taskbar in Windows XP? Well you can stop them with a registry hack!

Note: ALWAYS backup the registry BEFORE making changes.

1. Click Start -> Run

2. In the Run dialog box type regedit

3. The Registry Editor will appear.

4. Find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

5. Right Click an empty section of the Registry Editor and select New –>DWORD Value

6. Type EnableBalloonTips. Hit Enter

7. Right click the EnableBalloonTips DWORD Value and select Modify.

8. Give it a value of 0.

Now no more annoying Balloon Tips!

Have you ever had an application crash or other system problem that required a reboot of Windows? There is a shortcut to a faster reboot of Windows:

1. Hit Ctrl + Alt + Delete

2. The Windows Task Manager window will appear.

3. Click the Processes tab.

4. Scroll and find explorer.exe

5. Click End Process.

6. You will receive a warning message. Click OK

7. After Windows stops - Click File -> New Task on the Task Manager toolbar.

8. Type explorer.exe in the Create New Task window.

Windows will have actually “rebooted” since Windows Explorer was restarted.

You can add Copy To Folder and Move To Folder options to the Windows right click menu with a quick registry hack.

Note: ALWAYS backup the registry before making changes!

To create the Copy To Folder option:

1. Click Start -> Run

2. Type regedit into the Run dialog box.

3. In the registry editor, browse down to the key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

4. While at the key, right click and select the New Key option.

5. Now double click on the Default value and enter: {C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

6. Click OK

To create the Move To Folder option:

1. Follow steps 1 thru 5 above.

2. At step 5 enter: {C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

3. Click OK

Now you should see the Copy To Folder and Move To Folder options when you right click a file or folder.

It takes several clicks to put your computer in the “suspend” state. If you use this feature as often as I do, you can create a shortcut on your desktop to do this in just one click!

1. Right click an empty part of the desktop.

2. Select New -> Shortcut

3. Type: rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState

4. Name the shortcut Suspend or whatever name you wish.

Now when you wish to put your computer in the suspend state, just click the shortcut on your desktop.