REWIND 2009 COMPUTER TIPS

12/2009 - What to do on the Internet when bored
Related Tips: Internet tips

We often get requests for people looking for things to do on the Internet or claim they're bored on the Internet. This month we'd like to mention document CH000721, which has several dozen links of the best places on the Internet. Simply visiting each of the links on this page is sure to give anyone plenty of things to do and will likely introduce you to the best places to visit on the Internet.

11/2009 - Favorite Windows 7 tips
Related Tips: Microsoft Windows

With Windows 7 officially being released to the public we thought we'd list our top favorite Windows 7 tip pages.

• View two windows next to each other using Smart Window
• Open recent items using the new Jump List
• Pin items to your Taskbar
• Record any computer problems with the new Problem Steps Recorder
• Quickly run and find programs using the Windows Search
• Run Resmon to get full information about system performance
• Easily preview open Taskbar items

10/2009 - Firefox tabs
Related Tips: Firefox tips

Have all your favorite pages open in tabs each time you open the browser by following the below steps.

1. Open Firefox and all the tabs you wish to have open each time you open the browser.
2. Click Tools and then Options.
3. Within Options click the Main option and then click the "Use Current Pages" button, this will separate each URL with a pipe and will then open each of these tabs each time you open the browser.
4. Click Ok and the next time you open your browser each tab should also open.

9/2009 - iGoogle
Related Tips: Internet tips

Set your default homepage to iGoogle. A fantastic service from Google that enables users to have all relevant information they're interested in on their home page. Customizing this page you can set such settings as displaying your local weather, stocks, news, Facebook page, Twitter page, RSS feeds from your most popular pages, movies, and much more all on one page. To access this feature follow the below steps.

1. Open the main Google page.
2. In the top right portion of the Windows click the iGoogle link. Note: This link will not be visible unless you're logged into Google.
3. Once you've customized your own personalized iGoogle page simply set your home page as the iGoogle link or if you like the service but don't want it as your home page bookmark it. Information about changing your browser home page can be found on document CH000577.

8/2009 - Windows Vista
Related Tips: Microsoft Windows

Quickly see past problems encountered by Windows Vista and any solutions to those problems by clicking start and typing problem reports and solutions and press enter. In addition to finding solutions to problems this will also allow you to see a complete history of problems reported on the computer. See our Problem Reports and Solutions definition for an example of this screen and related links.

7/2009 - Free anti-virus
Related Tips: Microsoft Windows

Keep your computer safe and do it freely. Today, with the wide variety of free anti-virus programs there is no need to pay for an anti-virus scanner. Save yourself some money and uninstall the anti-virus program you're using and install one of the below free programs, which are just as good and wont expire on you.

• Free AVG
• Free Avast

6/2009 - Internet
Related Tips: Internet tips

Concerned about the safety of web pages you or others are visiting on your computer? Consider installing the free browser add-on WOT (Web of Trust), when installed this free add-on will display a large warning across the window of any web page that has been poorly rated, contains adware, been known to fraudulently charge visitors, contains malware, and/or is otherwise unsafe. This add-on can be downloaded from their web page.

5/2009 - Google search options
Related Tips: Internet tips

Take full advantage of Google's new options feature by clicking the Show options... link at the top of the results. Clicking this link will display a bar to the left side of the results allowing you to refine your results to more of what you're looking for. For example, the video link will display only videos related to your search, the reviews link will show any reviews related to your search, and related searches will show similar search results.

4/2009 - Microsoft Windows XP and Vista boot time
Related Tips: Microsoft Windows

If you're running Windows XP or Vista with a computer that has a multiple core processor such as the Intel Core 2 duo you can increase how fast your computer boots up by having it use multiple processors for its boot sequence. Following the below steps to have Windows do this for you.

1. Click Start and Run (for XP) and type: msconfig and press enter.
2. Click the BOOT.INI or BOOT tab.
3. XP users highlight the line beginning with "multi" if not already selected and click the Advanced Options button.
4. In the Advanced Options Window for /NUMPROC= or Number of Processors change it to 2.
5. Reboot the computer.

3/2009 - Microsoft Windows Explorer
Related Tips: Microsoft Windows

Speed up the display load time of Microsoft Windows Explorer by disabling the feature to search for network printers and folders. By default each time Windows Explorer is opened it'll attempt to locate any network printer or folder on your computer network. If your computer is not on a network and/or you have no network printers, folders, or shares disable this option by following the below steps.

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Click the Tools drop down menu and then Folder Options
3. Within the Folder Options tab click the View tab
4. Uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers"

2/2009 - Mozilla Firefox
Related Tips: Firefox tips

Remove that pesky download window that appears after downloading a file by adding the Firefox Download Statusbar Add-on to your browser. Alternatively editing the about:config settings as shown below can also disable this window from being displayed.

1. Open a new tab in Firefox.
2. In the address bar type: about:config
3. Locate browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting by copying and pasting the bold text into the Filter box.
4. Double-click the name or value to change the value from True to False. Once done close the tab.

If you've hidden your download Window it can still viewed by clicking Tools and then Downloads or pressing Ctrl + J.

1/2009 - Create your own web page icon
Related Tips: Web design tips

Create your own web site or blog icon by creating a favicon.ico file. Additional information about this file including the creation of this file can be found on document CH000410.

• See the Computer Hope tips section for a complete list of all tips that have been posted on Computer Hope.