Mar
15
2008
If your computer is taking forever to power on or restart then you might have one too many programs that are set to run at startup automatically. This can hog up your memory and your PCs overall performance. A quick fix would be to disable the items you don’t need or at least do not need each and every time the computer is turned on.
- Click on Start
- Run
- Type: msconfig
- Enter
This will open the System Configuration Utility
- Select the Start Up tab
- The command column will show you the directory path of the item
- This should help you choose which items you want to disable
- Unselect the items you don’t want to run during startup
Tweaking the System Startup items will help you preserve memory for the apps that you really want to use them for. Freeing the memory will also keep your PC running happy and healthy.
Mar
14
2008
The Windows Quick Launch Toolbar is designed to help you launch applications, photos, folders, email or any other item in a very “quick” way. It’s a very useful tool and very easy to use. It amazes me that alot of Windows XP users do not utilize this feature. In my opinion its a necessity when using XP and is a real time saver.
If you don’t already see the Quick Launch Toolbar on your Taskbar then follow these directions:
Enabling Quick Launch Toolbar
- Right click on your Taskbar
- Highlight Tools
- Select Quick Launch
After selecting Quick Launch you should see new icons on your Taskbar. By default the Quick Launch Toolbar is only set to display 3 icons and the rest are hidden. You will need to tweek it to fit your style. Follow these directions on tweeking it to taste just the way you like.
Adjusting The Size
Place your mouse cursor over the dotted line- Your mouse cursor should turn into an arrow with two directions.
- Left click and drag to the right to expand the size
- Release the mouse when your desired size is reached. The result should be something like this:
Of course it will depend on how many items are already on your Quick Launch Toolbar.
Deleting Items
- Hover your mouse cursor over the icon you want to delete
- Right Click
- Highlight Delete and Left Click. See screenshot:
Adding Items
- To add items to your Quick Launch Toolbar
- You simply just select an Item
- Drag to the Toolbar.
- And Drop to where you want the item to be
Changing Description
Mar
09
2008
When working on the PC, people tend overuse the desktop as the destination in which they save most of their items to, or at least I do. As a result the desktop ends up with a bunch of items that you do not actually need. This tutorial will help you keep ONLY the items you want to keep on the desktop.
- Go to your desktop
- Right click and select “Properties“
- From the Display Properties screen select the “Desktop” tab.
- From the Display tab click on the “Customize Desktop” button.
- Then click on the “Clean Desktop Now” Button.
- This will take you to the Clean Desktop Wizard click “Next“
- Select the items you want to clean up. Unselect the items you want to keep.(Note: Items selected will not be deleted, they will be moved to the Unused Items shortcut which will be a folder on the desktop)
- After figuring out which items you want to move to the Unused Items shortcut click “Next“.
- Then click “Finish” to perform the action.
