Tip of the day/General Tips etc

[gonwk]

WinTray 1.0

The source code is also available from the AutoIt Forum Article

Hi Miles,

I assume you have tried it on Vista 32-bit and it works ... right!?!?

Thanks!

G!

[MilesAhead]

Yup. I tried it on both XP Pro and Vista. There are other free minimizers out there but this one does the job with no frills. Less likely to break. I tried it with programs I wrote that minimize to tray and of course I got 2 icons in the tray, but it didn't hang. If you just keep clicking it gets back in sync. afaik it works perfectly with any window that doesn't already have a "minimize to tray" addon or component. Very nice little utility.

[MilesAhead]

Firefox to Opera without editing by hand for free

Transmute

I just ran across this utility when perusing 46 best XP freeware downloads. It's a free bookmark converter. The ones I tried before could never fully integrate Firefox to Opera. This one claims to also do the new Firefox 3.x format but I don't have that to try.

What I did try is export Firefox 2.0.0.20 bookmarks to Opera 9.27. In the past the way I did it was to export Firefox bookmarks, import in Opera, then edit the opera6.adr file to get the bookmarks to the root instead of under the "Bookmarks imported from Netscape" or whatever.

With this tool you just select Overwrite File(it auto backs up if you have that checked) and when you bring up Opera everything is there except if you have folders on the Personal Toolbar. To get those click on Bookmarks=>Manage Boomarks, click on Bookmarks Toolbar Folder,then hold down the Control key to select all the folders you want on the Personal Toolbar. After selecting, right click the mouse and check "show in personal bar" or you just drag each folder to the bar.. whichever is easier.

[MilesAhead]

change name set when you installed

I ran across this useful bit of info. How to change the name that shows in
Registered To in Computer Properties. If for instance you entered your real name when installing XP without thinking anything of it, well that registry key can be read to get your name. The article shows how to change it to whatever you want.

[gonwk]

I ran across this useful bit of info. How to change the name that shows in
Registered To in Computer Properties. If for instance you entered your real name when installing XP without thinking anything of it, well that registry key can be read to get your name. The article shows how to change it to whatever you want.

Hi Miles,

Now this is ONE HANDY tip ... perfect to make your Computer anonymous!

Thanks,

G!

[MilesAhead]

Expanded Taskbar?

@gonwk - you're welcome.

I've been using Windows for quite awhile but for some reason it just seemed too weird to expand the Taskbar. I was looking at a launcher program on AutoIt Forum that had a lot of bells and whistles but was basically a big Quick Launch Bar. So I thought, why not just expand the Taskbar?

It did seem weird but once I repositioned some of my most used programs and resized the windows a bit, I liked it. The way I've done it requires giving up a bit of the vertical desktop real estate, but I think it's worth it. You can add many more icons to Quick Launch without getting that overflow arrow thing. Plus you can have more icons in the System Tray. There's a screen shot below.

Assuming a Taskbar at the bottom of the desktop, to resize just right click on the taskbar and make sure Lock The Taskbar is not checked. Move the mouse along the top border until you get the double arrows, then drag the mouse up. It should generate another row. Optionally lock the taskbar.

By the way the Vista theme I'm using is a very cool theme called Aero Diamond Final. It's free and works once you hack the Vista Theme using VistaGlazz. There are some nice free Vista Themes on DeviantArt Sign-up is free.

[soup]

Currently checking out a new player, thought I would pass this one along. Seems to do the job so far.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_kmplayer/

[MilesAhead]

Get rid off "compress old files" in disk cleanup

How to Get Rid of Compress Old Files option that slows down Disk Cleanup.
Note this registry key is already gone in Vista. Guess disk cleanup was too slow even without it so they took it out.

[MilesAhead]

alternative start menu

On 46 best XP freeware site I saw mention of this start menu alternative.
It's called Vista Start Menu but it runs on

Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows 2003
Windows XP
Windows Vista

It kind of looks like the XP Start Menu when you have all the pages fanned out. If nothing else using it would give you a common look across XP and Vista.

[dr_ml422]

How to Get Rid of Compress Old Files option that slows down Disk Cleanup.
Note this registry key is already gone in Vista. Guess disk cleanup was too slow even without it so they took it out.

So I gather it's not needed at all then? Doesn't Ccleaner or any other registry cleaner do more or less what Disc Cleanup does, apart maybe from that Compress Old Files option?

That tip on changing your name in the registry is a good one I might add. I'm glad I got hip to that before I did a clean reinstall in my Dell, and when I built my computer. Before my whole name was there. Then again your name is virtually everywhere anyway, especially when you go purchase online. A lil paranoia and precaution goes a long way though.

[MilesAhead]

dr_ml422 I wouldn't use disk cleanup as a substitute for CCleaner. Mainly I use it when I don't want to do as thorough a job. I have CCleaner set to delete all cookies, history, form
fill history etc..

Mainly what I use disk cleanup for is to delete all but the latest restore point before doing a backup or defrag. It's convenient without the long wait for Compress to calculate the time etc..

As for the name thing, just for grins I brought up RegEdit and searched for my name. I got quite a few hits. I set a restore point and just went through with RegEdit and changed every reference to my name to Owner. So far all my software is still working.
The one from Registered To: is probably the most imprortant because it's in a known location. Likewise I wrote a little AutoIt program that encrypts the Wand form fill info when I'm not using it. If some software inside Opera or that looks into Opera is running while I'm filling in forms I'm hosed. But to me it's kind of naive to leave Name Address Phone and other info in Plain Text in the Opera6.ini file. Again, it's a common known location. Makes it too easy. When I'm going to use Wand with Opera my program decrypts the section of the .ini with the Wand info, runs Opera.. I go to the store and buy the stuff.. when I close Opera the wrapper program encrypts the Wand info again. It's just a kludge. Guess I have too much free time.

[dr_ml422]

dr_ml422 I wouldn't use disk cleanup as a substitute for CCleaner. Mainly I use it when I don't want to do as thorough a job. I have CCleaner set to delete all cookies, history, form
fill history etc..

Mainly what I use disk cleanup for is to delete all but the latest restore point before doing a backup or defrag. It's convenient without the long wait for Compress to calculate the time etc..

As for the name thing, just for grins I brought up RegEdit and searched for my name. I got quite a few hits. I set a restore point and just went through with RegEdit and changed every reference to my name to Owner. So far all my software is still working.
The one from Registered To: is probably the most imprortant because it's in a known location. Likewise I wrote a little AutoIt program that encrypts the Wand form fill info when I'm not using it. If some software inside Opera or that looks into Opera is running while I'm filling in forms I'm hosed. But to me it's kind of naive to leave Name Address Phone and other info in Plain Text in the Opera6.ini file. Again, it's a common known location. Makes it too easy. When I'm going to use Wand with Opera my program decrypts the section of the .ini with the Wand info, runs Opera.. I go to the store and buy the stuff.. when I close Opera the wrapper program encrypts the Wand info again. It's just a kludge. Guess I have too much free time.

Your MilesAhead Miles. MilesAhead. Just got rid of the compressed old files folder. I'll check my registry for my name. Prolly come up in any files assoc. w/FF and purchases I guess. I should do back-ups though. I usually don't. You just use system restore in windows or some other app.? I'm so use to having restore off because of how much it hogs that I don't even want to bother w/it.

[MilesAhead]

I use system restore as a quick and dirty fix. Since I write programs I'm always installing and uninstalling to try them out. For system backup I do Paragon Disk Backup Personal. In fact they just came out with a free Express edition that has all the features I paid $50 for in version 8.5. The only things I saw missing are new version 9.0 features like Folder Exclude from backup and backup of data files only. It should be fine just for system safeguarding. It comes with a boot CD image you burn that has USB support. You can boot from the CD and read your backup in from an external drive or over your Lan. If you want it will even burn backups to a bootable DVD set.


My XP machine got hosed awhile back by a browser BHO so I bought a system imaging program. First thing I did after reinstalling an OS was install about a dozen programs, do a backup, then delete my C: partition. I booted up and did the restore. Everything worked. After that it has bailed me out a few times. So I know it works on my machine.

Even though it's free you might want to go on the product forum and look around to get an idea if it works well on systems similar to yours. Backup doesn't do much good if it doesn't restore without a lot of stress.

[MilesAhead]

On 46 best XP freeware site I saw mention of this start menu alternative.
It's called Vista Start Menu but it runs on

Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows 2003
Windows XP
Windows Vista

It kind of looks like the XP Start Menu when you have all the pages fanned out. If nothing else using it would give you a common look across XP and Vista.

btw I just tried this out and for those of you who don't understand why MS doesn't let you put the Start Button on the Right Hand Side, this is as close as I've seen. When you open the Vista Start Menu you can position the window wherever you want. While it's running you can have the icon in the task tray. One click and the start menu comes up!! Voila!! Start Menu on the Right!! You can even uncheck "Replace System Start Menu" in the settings and the regular start menu will work as always. Very nicely done!!

[dr_ml422]

I understand. I almost got thrown off again when you said you deleted your C: partition. I thought, how can he operate a computer w/out a os. You just did that as a experiment to see if the back-up program w/your back-up would work. Of course you installed it afterwards right?

Miles can someone actually operate a computer from a disc in the drive w/out installing it? That would be something really hi-tech. It would definitely have to have a super encryption so that only one's computer can use it though. If not one would be passing it around like fresh baked bread.