Many Windows users dislike the nagging prompt, especially if they are currently running tasks that would be interrupted by a reboot. This includes video rendering, an important download or upload, or a document that needs to be finished in the next hour or so.

While you could select 4 hours from the menu to see the reboot prompt after 4 hours, you may still like to disable the display of the update prompt for a longer period of time. This can be useful if you are currently in a day long presentation that requires the computer.

There are two options to deal with the issue. You could first stop the Windows Update service for the current session. This basically blocks the prompt and any attempt to install new updates until the computer is rebooted.

The following steps are needed for this:

• Open up an elevated command prompt window. You can do that by clicking on the Start button of the operating system, entering cmd in the search form and using the shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Enter to open it with administrative privileges. A user account control prompt may be displayed.
• Run the command net stop “windows update” to stop the Windows Update service for the current session.

You can restart the service with the command net start “windows update”. The service will also be started normally on the next start of the system.

The second option lets you disable the auto reboot option when users are logged on. This requires some Registry hacking and is only suggested for advanced users. You may also want to backup the Registry first before you make those changes.

• Use Windows-r to bring up the run box. Enter regedit and hit enter to open the Windows Registry Editor.
• Navigate to the following Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update
• Locate the ForcedReboot key there and change its value from whatever it is set to to 0.

Please note that this works only under Vista, Windows 7 and newer operating systems.

The third and final option is the Local Group Policy Editor which is only available in some versions of the Windows operating system. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update and locate the following two parameters:

• No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations
• Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations

Enable the first parameter to block automatic restarts after update installations, and set the second to a high enough period to receive the reboot prompt less often.

Most users do not know that Microsoft has integrated an advanced version of the cleanup tool in the Windows operating system. The core reason for that is that it can only be started from the command prompt, and not from menus or by clicking on a program icon on the desktop.

Lets first take a look at the standard version of Disk Cleanup. One of the easiest ways to start the Disk Cleanup is to use the shortcut Windows-r to bring up the run box, enter cleanmgr in there and tap on the enter key afterwards. This opens the program right away. There are other ways to launch it, for instance by entering disk cleanup in the start menu search form.

The standard Disk Cleanup tool can delete the following temporary files on the system. Included in the deletion are temporary files, thumbnails, or downloaded programs.

Check out How To Clean Hard Drives In Windows 7 for general information about the cleanup software.

Compare that to the options the advanced cleanup tool offers.

Included now are debug dump files, system and user queued error reporting files, files discarded by Windows upgrade or setup and windows upgrade log files.

Here is how you can load the advanced Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows. Open the run prompt again with Windows-r. Now run the following command to bring up the advanced version.

Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & /sagerun:65535

Just click ok afterwards to load the advanced Disk Cleanup Tool interface.

Note that not all items are selected by default, which means that you need to look through the options to enable and disable items until you are satisfied with the selection.

For example, when you are dual booting any Linux operating system such as Ubuntu, the very first thing that you need to be aware of is that the Linux Grub will overwrite your Master Boot Record (MBR). This will mean that you will be able to boot your new Linux operating system in a hard drive partition, but you will probably not be able to boot back into Windows thereafter.

Rather than spend a day pulling your hair out trying to look for a solution, find a good guide on dual booting Ubuntu with Windows before you get started. This is an Ubuntu guide on the topic that happens to be immensely helpful and there are plenty of other links on the site to assist, should you run into any problems.

To get to the point, the very first thing you must do before dual booting Linux alongside Windows is backup your operating system. Don’t just backup the files and folders; backup the entire system on an external hard drive. If you put it on a partition and you are unable to access the partition after the dual boot, you are out of luck. It seems obvious, but always backup your system to removable devices or an FTP server. The advantage of having the external hard drive is that you have something tangible in your hands that you can restore your system with.

Secondly, create a system repair disk or buy one. If you have your Windows installation disk, that would be best, but the repair disk will be sufficient to get you into the recovery environment so that you can have a DOS prompt to work from in order to restore your MBR. As long as you have the full system backup and the repair disk, you have a parachute if you mess up the operation. Understand that Linux has a completely different language than DOS and the GNU Grub is not something to be messing with unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Make sure that you partition your hard drive properly before dual booting. DO NOT boot Linux onto the same partition on which you have installed Windows. That just about covers it.

Once you have an effective dual boot of Windows and Linux, you will be rather pleased with yourself and you get to enjoy the benefits of both operating systems. Also, a dual boot is much faster and more efficient than a virtual machine. Enjoy a safe dual boot.

The person looking at the computer can help troubleshoot PC issues by taking control over the user PC.

The process of setting up the PC to accept remote access requests is simple. Windows users first need to open Windows Remote Assistance by clicking on the start menu, and following the path All Programs > Maintenance > Remote Assistance. The following window will pop up upon execution of the program.

Two options are available:

• Invite someone you trust to help you – Your helper can view your screen and share control of your computer
• Help someone who has invited you – Respond to a request for assistance from another person

Please note that only invited users can connect to a PC remote using the feature. Your computer is safe if you have never configured invites for remote sessions before.

Select the invite option if you want someone to take a look at your computer. Some scenarios that come to mind are your parents that need help with a computer problem while you are in college, friends that require assistance and even business related aid if there is more than one office available.

A repair option may be presented to you. Windows will automatically check if the computer is properly configured to send invitations. Just click on repair to resolve the issues. This intermediary screen will for instance pop up if the Remote Assistance service is not enabled on the PC.

Please note that you may need administrative rights to run the repair on the PC. You may also need to restart the Windows Remote Assistance wizard after the repairs have been completed.

The next screen is about sending out the invitation. Three options are provided of which only some may be available.

• Save this invitation as a file – You can send this invitation as an attachment if you use web based e-mail
• Use e-mail to send an invitation – If you use a compatible e-mail program this will start the e-mail program and attach the invitation file
• Use Easy Connect – Use this option if Easy Connect is also available to your helper

Note that the Easy Connect option may not be selectable. This can be the case if both computer’s are not running Windows 7, if access to the Internet is limited, or if the router does not support Easy Connect.

You basically create a file in this step that the remote user needs to access on a second PC to establish the remote connection to your PC. The setup program furthermore generates a unique password that needs to be entered to establish the remote session.

All you need to do now is to wait for the remote worker to connect to your PC. A click on Chat opens a chat window, which may be helpful if you do not have other means of communication.

A click on Settings opens a preferences window where you can configure bandwidth usage (configured low by default), whether you want to log sessions and if the ESC key should stop the session.

The screen will change slightly once a remote connection has been established. You will then see a Pause button to pause access to the system temporarily and a stop sharing button. Pause is useful if you need to leave your computer for a moment.

When you are asked to help someone, you perform almost identical steps. You first need access to the invitation file and the password. Start Windows Remote Assistance afterwards and select one of the available options:

• Use an invitation file – Open an invitation file you have received. You will need to enter the password to connect.
• Use Easy Connect – Use this option if Easy Connect is also available to the person you are helping.

You are asked to enter the password in the second setup step.

Once done you can access the remote PC with your mouse and keyboard for as long as the session stays up.

Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop offer configuration options that you may want to take a look at. Enter Allow remote access to your computer in the Windows 7 start menu form and select the option that appears. You should see the following screen.

You can enable or disable the feature directly on the first screen, or click on the Advanced button to change the time the computer will accept connections from invited users. The default wait time is set to six hours which you can change to minutes, hours or days instead.

Here is a video demonstrating the setup and functionality

You find more information about Windows Remote Assistance at the Windows 7 News website.

Have you tried the remote assistance feature of Windows 7? If so, what was your experience?

This demonstration is performed on Windows 7, but the instructions are the same for Vista. There are a few ways to open the Disk Management console. The easiest way is to go to the start menu search box and type “disk management”. At the top of the resulting list, you should see the Control Panel option clearly listed and highlighted.

Partition a hard drive

From here, press enter or click on “Create and format hard disk partitions”. This will open the Disk Management console. You will notice all drives displayed clearly. If you have never partitioned before, notice that there are already three partitions. This is normal for Windows and you never want to change these. The first is a recovery partition that is needed to recover the operating system if it becomes inaccessible. The second is called “System Reserved” and the third will be displayed as drive (C:). Essentially, these comprise the operating system except for the third which contains essential system files and free space.

To create a new partition, right-click the (C:) drive and the context menu will list the option to “Shrink Volume”.

Click “Shrink Volume” and this will open a small pop-up that indicates that the utility is querying the volume for available shrink space. Essentially, you will be “shrinking” a portion of the drive and it will become a separate partition. You can begin doing this when the following window appears:

Specify the size for the new partition. In the highlighted blue field, you will see the full amount of space available to shrink next to “Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB”. Since you will be entering the size of the new partition (shrink) in MB, understand that 1GB is 1,024MB. If you want to create a new partition of 10GB, for example, you would enter 10,240. If you want to create a larger partition, you will need a calculator for odd sizes like 17GB or 183GB. In this case, we are going to create a 10GB partition.

After entering the desired size for the partition, click Shrink and shortly a new unallocated partition will be created. This is unallocated space and is not yet usable. It needs to be formatted to create a healthy partition. Right click on the new partition and select “New Simple Volume” from the top of the context menu. This opens the New Simple Volume Wizard, which allows you to set up the formatting and Drive path with an assigned letter. When the Wizard opens, click Next and the consecutive window will ask you to specify the size of the drive again. As long as you want it to be the size you originally specified, there is no reason to change the size, so click Next.

Here you have the option to assign a drive letter and path. The default path will be the drive letter. Since this is a basic tutorial, the options of mounting to an empty NTFS folder or formatting to formats other than NTFS will not be explained. If this is the first partition you are creating, the default drive letter will be (E:). You may click the dropdown menu and select another letter if desired, but it is not necessary. Click Next and this will take you to the formatting options.

In this window, you can choose different file system types, specify a name for the partition and enable file and folder compression. To keep it simple, let the defaults remain as they are and click Next unless you would like to name the volume first. If you wish to name it, enter the desired name in the Volume label field and then click Next. The final window will open and all you have to do is click Finish and your new partition is formatted and ready to accept files or be used as a virtual drive.

You may do this for as many partitions as you may need. For example, when setting up a dual-boot, you may need to create up to three additional partitions for the second operating system to be installed. That is all up to you and it is a different subject entirely.

Un-Partitioning

Once you have gotten the procedure down for creating new partitions and you have used them, you may find at some point that you want to remove the partitions and merge the disk space back into drive (C:). In order to do this, you will need to open the Disk Management console again and choose the partition that you want to remove. Right click the partition and select Delete Volume from the context menu. This will erase all data on the partition, but that is fine because you want to have free space again.

You will see that the partition is now free space. The next step is to right click the free space volume and select Delete Partition from the menu. This will change it to unallocated space, which is the only way to merge this space back into (C:).

Now you are ready to add the unallocated space back into (C:), so right click on volume (C:) and select Extend Volume from the context menu. The Extend Volume Wizard will open and you basically go through similar steps as you did to create the partition as outlined in the beginning of this tutorial.

If you are only Extending from one partition, then continue to click Next through all of the prompts, clicking Finish at the end. This will remove the partition and you will no longer see it, as the memory has been put back onto Drive (C:).

Now you have successfully un-partitioned the drive and there is more memory available in Drive (C:). If you created multiple partitions and wanted to clear all of them, keep selecting Delete Volume and then Delete Partition for each one until you get a single unallocated space and follow the steps above to Extend Volume for Drive (C:).

The procedure is similar if you have multiple partitions and only want to delete a portion of them. For example, if you have four partitions like (E:), (M:), (L:), and (F:), you may want to delete just two. Let’s say that you want to delete (M:) and (F:). Perform the same steps as you would for single partitions. They will merge together as a single unallocated space. Then open the Extend Volume Wizard as described above. When the Wizard opens, select the unallocated space from the list of available disks and Add it to the remove list if it is not already there.

Regardless of how many partitions you are going to make or how many you want to delete and un-partition, the procedures are the same as detailed above. Just be careful to avoid deleting partitions that contain data you want to save. Backup your system before deleting multiple partitions. This will ensure that no data is lost if you do make the mistake of deleting the wrong partition(s).

You can always regain space on Drive (C:) using this method, thanks to the Disk Management Utility in Windows 7 and Vista. Usually, unless you have a higher capacity hard drive from 500GB – 3TB, you won’t be able to practically create many partitions at all. Removing multiple partitions will only be an issue for users with larger hard drives or users with smaller drives who have allocated too much space to partitions and are running out of space on Drive (C:).

If you are working with multiple virtual machines and dual boot systems, this information can be very useful. By learning all of these basic steps, you can easily progress to creating partitions with different formats such as FAT32 or ext2 and other formats used for different aspects of virtual machines and dual booted operating systems. This should give you the basic tools to master drive partitioning so that you can create any configuration you want. Once again, the customization beauty of Windows 7 and Vista shines through.

You can test if your wireless connection is having regular lags by opening the Windows command line (Windows-r, type cmd, hit enter) and use the ping command to ping a local or remote IP address (e.g. ping -t 192.168.1.1).

If you see time spikes you are affected by the issue.

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1355ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

The WLAN AutoConfig service is responsible for the scans which are executed even if the computer is already connected to a wireless network. Users have reported connection issues for up to five seconds during scans which is especially problematic for Internet gamers and users who use streaming media services.

It is not possible to disable the WLAN AutoConfig service right away, as it is needed to establish the connection.

The free software program WLAN Optimizer resolves the issue by disabling background scans once a wireless connection has been made.

The portable program displays all options in two tabs in its interface. The status tab displays a pulldown wireless network adapter selection menu and the status of the tweaks the program offers.

The settings tab displays options to enable background scan and streaming mode. It is not recommended to disable autoconfig in the menu, but the option is available.

WLAN Optimizer is however not the only software that disables wireless background scans. The free tool VBGScan is also capable of disabling the scans. It has been developed for Vista, and it is not clear if it works under Windows 7 as well.

Just use the basic interface to configure the software. It offers the same features as WLAN Optimizer. (via)

Library and favorite folders of Windows 7 have additional folder display options that standard folders do not offer.

Windows 7 users need to locate the Arrange By menu at the top right of the Windows Explorer window when a library or favorites folder is selected to access those additional options.

The folder display mode is the default mode for all library and favorites folders. This is the standard mode that all other folders on the system make use of as well.

Switching the arrange by mode to one of the other modes will fundamentally change the way files are displayed in the selected folder. Name for instance displays all files of all folders in the structure directly. This basically means that Windows arranges all files of a library in the root folder sorted by their name.

Here is a quick overview of all folder arrangement options:

• Author: Lists documents by author folders (and one unrecognized folder for all files and documents without author)

• Date Modified: Sorts all files by their modification date in the root folder structure

• Tags: All files are sorted by their tags

• Type: All files are sorted in file extension folders.

As you can see, there are numerous options to display files of all folders of a library or favorites folder in the root directory. Some options have likely been added as extra features for specialized folders. Tags for instance can be useful for files in the Music or Pictures library folder, author for the documents folder.

The different display arrangements work best for those specialized folders, and not so good if a folder contains lots of different file types and extensions.

Did you know that you can change the folder arrangement in Windows 7?

When you use Windows Explorer in thumbnail view mode, and it does not really matter if you display folders and files in small, medium or larged size thumbnails, you will notice that some folders display one of the stored images in their icon. Folders without images display as blanks instead.

You sometimes may want to change the image that is displayed by default, for instance if another image is more appropriately characterizing the folder or if you do not want that particular image to be displayed prominently in Windows Explorer.

It is possible to customize the folder picture thubmnail so that another image is shown instead. Please note that the following guide demonstrates how this is done under Windows 7. Other operating systems may or may not offer this feature at all.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder that you want to change the thumbnail image for. Right-click on the folder and select Properties from the options. Please note that you need to select the real folder path for that operation and not a virtual folder (like a library folder). The My Pictures folder for instance would require you to open C:\Users\username\Pictures in Windows Explorer.

Switch to the Customize tab in the Properties window and locate Choose File under Folder Pictures.

A click on choose file opens a folder browser where another image can be selected to be that folder’s preview picture. Just select the image and click on open to assign it to the folder. Click on ok again in the properties window to close it. The changes should be visible right away. You can repeat the process for as many folders as you like.

Microsoft has not made available language packs for the release, at least none that are publicly available. A fan project has started to create unofficial language packs for the Windows 8 operating system. Available at the time of writing are French, Spanish and Italian language packs for both the 32-bit and 64-bit edition of the Windows 8 Developer Preview.

While it is unlikely that the installation of language packs causes issues on the system, it is not recommended to install the language packs in a productive environment without prior testing.

The language packs are installed with the help of the WDP Universal Language Installer linked on the development website. Users furthermore need to download the language packs and use the Universal Language Installer application to install them on their Windows 8 installation.

Run the language pack installer software first and pick the language that you want to install. Make sure it fits the version of the operating system (32-bit language packs for 32-bit systems, and 64-bit packs for 64-bit systems). A reboot is required to complete the installation.

The developers have converted the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 language packs to Windows 8 packs. It is likely that part of the Windows 8 interface, especially new interface elements and menus, are not completely translated.

It is likely that the developers will add additional language packs, e.g. German, in the coming days.

When can you expect official language packs or Windows 8 localized downloads? If Microsoft copies the development phases of Windows 7 language packs will become available with the Windows 8 Release Candidate which is expected to be released in mid 2012. (via)

The caps lock key, next to num lock, was the culprit here most of the time. Most computer users do not need the caps lock key on the keyboard anymore. The following guide explains how you can disable the caps lock key permanently.

Here is how it is done. Open the Windows Registry the following way: Hold down Windows-r to bring up the run box, enter regedit into the box and tap on the enter key. This opens the Windows Registry Editor. Navigate to the following Registry key in the folder browser on the left.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout

Right-click on Keyboard Layout and select New > Binary from the context menu. Enter Scancode Map and press enter to add the key. Double-click on the newly created key afterwards and enter the following information.

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
02 00 00 00 00 00 3A 00
00 00 00 00

Take a look at the following screenshot to see how it should look like in the Registry editor.

You need to restart your PC after you have made the changes. Once you have done that you will notice that the caps lock key will no longer function under Windows. Nothing happens if you tap on the key.

Please note that some applications may make use of the caps lock key. If that is the case you may break some or all of their functionality. You can re-enable the caps lock by deleting the Scancode Map Registry key and restarting the Windows PC.

Keyboard remapping software like Sharp Keys can also be used to remap the caps lock key so that it no longer functions at all or offers a different function.

Are you using Caps Lock? If so, for what?

Hiding an Individual Library

Open the Libraries window or open Windows Explorer and select Libraries. In the Navigation pane, right-click the library that you want to hide and a popup menu will be displayed. Out of the options, select “Don’t show in navigation pane”.

The library you selected will now be absent from the Navigation pane, but it will still be in the right pane of the Libraries window. In order to add it back to the Navigation Pane, right-click on the library in the right pane and a similar popup window will open as before. Select the option “Show in navigation pane”.

You may also delete a library if you want to. This is not the same thing as hiding a library. To delete a library, follow the same steps as you would for hiding a library but select “Delete” instead. If you do this either by accident or purposely, it is simple to get it back if you right-click on Libraries in the Navigation pane and click “Restore default libraries” from the menu.

Another option is to collapse the list if you would rather not hide or delete the library from the Navigation pane. This will collapse the list entirely, getting the libraries list out of the way. Right-click the Libraries link and, as usual, a popup menu will open. From the list, select “Collapse”. Once the list is collapsed, it is only temporary. If you click the arrow next to the Libraries link, the list will expand. You can collapse it again by clicking the same arrow.

If, for some reason, you are displeased with the Windows 7 Libraries feature, it is possible to completely remove the link from the Navigation pane. Included below is a registry hack that will accomplish this. This is not a manual registry hack but two .reg files that will save all the trouble of the multiple steps it will take to do this manually. This will not only remove the Libraries link from the pane, it will disable the shell extension in the registry and you will no longer be able to access any of the libraries. Fortunately, another hack is included to enable the Libraries feature again.

DisableLibariesFeature (via How To Geek)

To disable the Libraries feature, double-click DisableLibrariesFeature.reg. Now close all Explorer windows and logoff then logon again. The feature will now be disabled. A reversal is included to enable the Libraries feature. To re-enable the Libraries feature, double-click EnableLibrariesFeature.reg. then logoff and logon as you did in the step to disable the feature.

Windows users who want better manageability of the library feature can use tools like the Windows 7 Library Tool or Librarian for that.

I’m not sure what caused the issue, but what I did know was that I had to stop the installer from creating new Flash installer instances on my computer. With Windows Task Manager out of the picture, I had to find a way to terminate the process.

One of the best Windows Task Manager alternatives is Process Explorer from Sysinternals (which have been part of Microsoft for the past years). You can download the latest version of Process Explorer from here.

I started the process manager with standard rights first only to find out that I could not use it this way to terminate the process. After exiting and restarting it with elevated rights (by right-clicking and selecting run as administrator) I was able to terminate the process on the system.

Other programs, like Process Lasso, Kill Process or the recently reviewed Daphne may have also been able to terminate the rogue process.

I have learned two things this morning: First, that Windows Task Manager is not almighty when it comes to terminating processes on Windows, and second that it is definitely better to download and install Adobe Flash Player offline installers.

Did you ever encounter a process that you could not kill? What did you do to resolve it?

The items on the context menu are all in the registry and a simple registry hack can easily remove them. Note that this is for the more experienced user and there are registry management utilities available for those who are inexperienced with accessing the Windows registry directly. Also, before digging into the registry and making any changes; create a restore point so that if you cause any undue problems you will be able to reverse the changes.
To clean up the context menu by hacking the registry, open regedit.exe from the Start menu. The unfortunate part of this is that context menu items are not stored in one location in the registry. You can find most of the menu items for various files and folders by searching one of the following registry keys:

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFileSystemObjects\ShellEx

If the menu items are associated with specific folders, they can be found in one of the following two registry keys:

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Items in the context menu will need to be changed differently depending on the location in the registry. Shell items are the easiest to find. For example, browse to the shell key under Directory.

To hide an item, use Shift+Right-Click and add a new string value in the right pane. Name the new string “Extended”.

This will hide the item from the context menu. You can also enter “LegacyDisable” for the new string value and this will disable the key. If you choose to delete the key entirely, export and save a copy first.

When dealing with “shellex” items, you will go to one of the keys listed above:

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Determine the correct item by the key name in the left pane. Disable it by inserting a few dashes before the value item. This will not delete the item. In this example, SUPERAntiSpyware is disabled from the context menu in this manner.

Each key location indicated above will need to be searched to find the items you wish to remove (disable) from the context menu. For specific file types, use the Extended or LegacyDisable string values to disable. You will only need to edit the string with dashes for shellex items. This may seem tedious to some users while others may prefer these methods.

You can actually learn a lot by perusing the registry but it should always be done with great care. If you are inexperienced with this, create a full backup of the registry before playing around and, as mentioned, create a restore point

The site offers service listing for all recent Windows operating system. Charles M. Sparks, the guy behind the Black Viper site, has recently posted an update listing all preliminary Windows 8 services. You find all current Windows 8 services in the list, their service name, the default Windows 8 Ultimate configuration setting and the recommended “safe” setting.

Why only Ultimate? Because Microsoft so far has only released that version in form of the Windows 8 Developer Preview. Users may be able to test other Windows 8 editions when the beta or release candidates come out.

Each service is linked to a Wiki entry on Black Viper’s website where additional information are provided. Here you find a service description, default path and command line options, account it is executed on and additional information.

All Windows 8 service information are preliminary in nature. Still, users who are currently running the Windows 8 Developer Preview release can use the information presented on the site to tweak their Windows 8 operating system.

If you have been using Black Viper’s site previously you may remember that the services listing included not only a Safe listing but also a Tweak and Barebones listing. Safe settings are not aggressive and should not cause troubles for the majority of users. It is the best setting to start with and it is likely that Charles will add tweak and barebones listings at a later time. For now, Safe and Default is all you can get.

It is nevertheless reassuring that Black Viper has already started to work on the Windows 8 Services listing on his site. You can check out the listing here. (via Mike)

Both methods are not really straightforward and need more time than the process should take in first place. Thankfully though there is a way to copy command prompt outputs directly to the Windows Clipboard, it is only lesser known.

Open the command prompt as usual. You can open it with standard rights or elevated rights by right-clicking on the icon in the start menu and selecting to run it as an administrator.

Once there you can copy any output to the clipboard by appending | clip at the end of the command. A basic example is the dir command which outputs all folders and files of the current directory level directly in the command prompt. Please note that you won’t see the output anymore on the screen as it is redirected to the clipboard.

• dir – output in the command prompt
• dir > test.txt – output copied to the file test.txt in the same directory.
• dir | clip – output copied to the clipboard

The directory command is only a basic example to demonstrate the effect of the | clip command. You can obviously use it for complex commands and outputs as well. Whenever you use the clip command everything that is part of the output is copied to the Windows clipboard.

Did you know about the clip output command? If not, how did you copy the command prompt output until now?

More often than not, these update issues are due to ActiveX traffic coming through your router. Indeed, it is that simple. There is an easy way to fix this so that you will not have to deal with the various error messages anymore and your computer will get the necessary (and important) updates that it needs. Windows Update is no joke. This has to happen. These updates are important for security and functionality. This tutorial will guide you through a quick method to allow ActiveX traffic. Please note that the admin interface of your router may or may not offer this option. It can also be that the feature is listed under a different name.

Internet Explorer 8 in particular requires ActiveX components to function properly. Disabling IE8 will not solve the problem nor will updating to IE9. You can specify firewall settings for software and hardware to allow appropriate ActiveX filtering, but this is more advanced. Here, we will be using the open source router firmware DD-WRT. This is a user-friendly firewall solution that takes the technical aspects out of more mundane functions.

Navigate to your router’s IP address in any web browser. You may not know your router IP address and you can open a command prompt to find it. Press Win+R and type “cmd” or open command prompt from the Start Menu.

In the command prompt window, type “ipconfig” and press enter. The IP address will be listed under “Default Gateway”. This should be your router’s IP address. Now just enter this IP address (yours, not the one above) in the URL bar of the chosen web browser.

Click the Security tab and find the checkbox labeled “Filter ActiveX”. Uncheck the box and this will clear the filtering and allow ActiveX traffic through.

After doing this, a new window will present. In this window, click the button labeled “Apply Settings”. This should do the trick. Close your web browser and attempt Windows Update again.

If you see an image like the screenshot above, then you have succeeded in clearing the impediment to Windows Update. Every router is different and will handle this change in a different manner. This is by no means a blanket solution, but it is one that works in most cases.

Another simple fix for Windows Update errors is to disable automatic updates and update the recommended updates manually. If they all update successfully, you can turn on automatic updates again and it should continue to work. If, on the other hand, this does not work, identify the update(s) that did not install and contact Microsoft Help regarding the issue. Generally they will help you fix it for free and Windows Update will work normally once again.

If you add the default Desktop toolbar, you get a seemingly random list of all shortcuts and files that are currently on the desktop. There is furthermore no sorting option available, which can be a problem if you have many items on the desktop as you need to look through all of the listing to find the file or shortcut you are looking for.

There is however an option to sort the desktop toolbar listing by name. This is done the following way:

Right-click on a blank spot on the taskbar and select Toolbars > New Toolbar from the menu. You now need to select the desktop folder in your user profile folder, and not the special folder desktop. You find that folder under C:\Users\username\Desktop. Pick that folder and it should appear on the Windows taskbar.

All that is left to do now is to left-click on the arrow next to the desktop listing to bring up the file listing. You will notice that it appears unsorted.

Right-click any file listed there and select Sort by name from the context menu to sort the file listing alphabetically. Alphabetical access should speed up the recognition and execution of particular shortcuts and files stored on the Windows desktop.

I have tested this method under Windows 7 where it worked fine. It is likely that it will work under Windows Vista and maybe even Windows XP. Please let me know if you have tested it under those operating systems so that I can update the guide accordingly.

Have you activated the desktop toolbar, or any other toolbar for that matter, on your Microsoft Windows system?

Zero-Power Optical Disc Drive is part of the SATA 6GB/s specification (to be precise SATA revision 3.1). To support the new power saving feature of the latest SATA revision, the computer system and operating system need to support it. If your computer does not support Sata 6GB/s connections you cannot make use of the power saving feature.

Zero-Power ODD is enabled by default in the Windows 8 operating system. Windows 8 will recognize compatible drives automatically and use the feature to save power. This basically means that the optical drive does not need power at all if it is idle.

While unlikely you may encounter situations where the new feature acts up, or where you under no circumstances want to save power using that feature.

Windows 8 comes with an option to disable Zero-Power ODD. In the developer preview edition you need to change the value of a Registry key for that.

Open the Windows Registry editor first. You need to bring up the run box with the shortcut Windows-r, type in regedit and hit enter. This displays a prompt for elevation which you need to accept.

Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\cdrom\parameters\ and locate the parameter ZeroPowerODDenabled on the right side. It is likely that you only see the parameter if your computer supports the feature.

Double-click the value and change it to 0. You then need to restart your computer before the changes become active. You can at any time enable the feature again by repeating the steps. The only difference is that you need to set the value to 1 instead of 0 to enable it. (via)

This is the download mirror for Library Icon Changer:

Unzip the folder and launch the tool from the .exe file. You are immediately greeted with a window containing various icons and a list of libraries.

To change the Libraries icons, highlight one of the icons in the right pane and then choose one of the icons in the left pane. When you have found the icon that you would like to replace the Library icon with, select it and then click the button at the bottom of the left pane: “Select Icon from dll”. Notice that, after selection, the icons are changed in the right panel and they are changed in the main Library window as well.

There it is. It looks a little better now. You can use any of the icons and change them as desired. You may also restore the default icons by clicking “Restore default Icon” in the main interface for Library Icon Changer. This is the easy way to change Library icons. Now we can take a look at how to change them manually without using third party software.

Changing Library Icons Manually

All it takes it Notepad to change these icons manually. Copy and paste the following line into the Start menu search box. You may also paste it in the Explorer location bar. Either way will work.

%appdata%\microsoft\windows\libraries

Now drag any of the icons from Windows Explorer over to the Notepad window and this will open the file.

The iconReference line will be visible in the file. In the event that it is not there, you will need to add one. For example, it would look something like this:

<iconReference>C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll,301</iconReference>

Check for the data in the middle of the path. Look for either the .ico file or to reference a DLL files, it is necessary to add the comma and include the number position of the selected icon in the file itself.

Now you know two ways to change library icons. The software method using Library Icon Changer is probably best for the average user. The manual method is better suited to the advanced user or someone learning how to change program files manually to make adjustments to appearances and applications. Both ways get the job done.

Snap in Windows 8 on the other hand refers to a feature in Windows 8′s new Metro user interface. When enabled it allows users to run and display more than one program in the Metro interface. To be precise, it can be used to display two program windows in the interface instead of just one.

Snap is however only enabled if the computer monitor resolution is 1366×768 or higher. Users who run a lower resolution won’t be able to make use of Snap on Windows 8.

It is however relatively easy to enable Snap on Windows 8 thanks to a Registry key that’s being used by Windows to determine whether the feature is enabled or disabled.

To enable Windows Snap do the following:

• Open the Windows Registry editor. You can do that with the hotkey Windows-r, typing regedit in the run box and hitting enter afterwards. This may trigger an UAC prompt.
• Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\AppPositioner\
• Right-click in the right pane and select New > Dword (32-bit) from the context menu.
• Name the new key AlwaysEnableLSSnapping and enter 1 in the Value data field.
• Click ok and restart the computer aftwards.

You should be able to display two program windows side by side in the Windows 8 user interface.

Users who do not want to edit the Registry manually can download a software like Windows 8 Snap Enabler which is a two button software that can enable or disable the snap feature of Windows 8. (via)