Shorten the list of frequently used programs in the Start menu

Windows XP, Vista, 7

Windows maintains a list of the most

frequently used programs in the Start

menu. These shortcuts enable quick

access to the applications. But the

long list also tends to be unclear.

You can reduce the number of

entries in the list. Right-click ‘Start’ for

this. Select ‘Properties’ in the following

context menu. The ‘Taskbar and Start

Menu Properties’ dialog box opens.

In case of Windows XP and Vista,

ensure that the ‘Start menu’ option

is selected. As opposed to that, the

‘Classic Start menu’ option sees to

it that Windows displays the Start

menu in the layout of older versions,

where the list for the most frequently

used applications had not yet been

integrated.

The ‘Customize Start Menu’ dialog

box opens on clicking ‘Customize’. It

diff ers depending on the version of the

operating system. In case of Vista and
Windows 7, you must type the number
of desired program shortcuts under
‘Number of recent programs to display’.
If you use Windows XP, you will fi nd the
‘Number of recent programs to display’
option in the ‘General’ tab. Windows
carries out the modifi cations after
confi rming with ‘OK’.
NOTE: By entering ‘0’, you completely
remove the list of the most frequently
used programs.

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Extra Cores for Free

Keep your fingers crossed and you might be able to turn your dual-core or triple-core AMD Phenom II CPU into a quad-core one.



Core unlocking is one of the
hottest topics these days. The
AMD Phenom II X2 and X3
CPUs are made from quad-core silicon
wafers that didn’t make it to quad-core
Phenom II CPUs due to minor defects.
As a measure to minimise wastage, AMD
disables the defective cores and uses the
remainder to manufacture dual-core and
triple-core chips. So Phenom II X2 CPUs
have two disabled cores and Phenom
II X3 CPUs have one. Core unlocking is
simply enabling the disabled cores to get
a quad-core CPU.
You have to be lucky to be able to
successfully unlock the cores and have
a fully functional CPU. If the cores have
a minor defect, you might be successful
or else you might end up with the
Blue Screen of Death on reboot. But
nevertheless, it’s worth trying your luck.
First of all, you need a motherboard
that supports the core unlocking feature.
Most of the latest motherboards have
this feature present as an option in the
BIOS or as a button. We installed the
AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition
on the Asus Crosshair IV Formula
motherboard. On powering up the rig
with the Core Unlocker button pressed,
only one extra core got activated.
Next, we tried the manual method. We
activated the Core Unlocker option from
the BIOS and manually activated all
the cores. It worked like magic. No Blue
Screen of Death and all our benchmarks
ran without any hiccup at default clock
speed of 3.3 GHz. That’s as good as
the high-end AMD Phenom II X4 965,
which costs Rs 9,500, for almost half
the price. With two extra cores unlocked,
CPU-Z reported the model of the CPU as
Phenom II X4 B60.
Next, we tried overclocking the CPU.
Being a Black Edition model, the Phenom
II X2 560 features an unlocked multiplier,
which makes overclocking hassle-free.
Unlike CPUs with a fi xed multiplier, here
you need not raise the bus speed and
keep an eye on the memory speed. It’s
as simple as bumping the multiplier
beyond the default value. We raised the
CPU ratio from 16.5 to 20 and our CPU
was running happily at 4.0 GHz on air
cooling.
Best of luck!

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End hanged programs with a mouse click

Windows XP, Vista, 7

A program has crashed and is
blocking several other processes.
Normally, the only way out is to use the
Task Manager and end all programs
individually by confirming
in each case.

The ‘taskkill’ command can be used to generate a

tool for automatically ending hanged processes.

You can end programs without
any query in the command line, using
the ‘taskkill’ command. It even off ers
other options. For instance, it can fi rst
determine all the programs that are not
reacting anymore and only end those. If
you create a shortcut, you can save the
necessary options along with it. Rightclick
on a free spot on the desktop and
select the context command ‘New |
Shortcut’. Enter the following command
in the input field: taskkill /F /F1
“STATUS eq NOT RESPONDING” and
click ‘Continue’.
The first option ‘/F’ compels the
processes to end while ‘/F1’ activates
the following fi lter. This fi lter verifi es the
status of all processes and reports those
with the message ‘NOT RESPONDING’
instead of ‘RUNNING’. Provide the
shortcut with a suitable name such as
‘Ending hanged programs’ and click
‘Finish’. You can subsequently even assign
another icon using the context command
‘Properties’. In the future, calling this
shortcut will suffice for ending all
processes that have crashed.
CAUTION: Make sure that you do not lose
the saved application data. Always try to
wait for a response and end the program
in the regular manner.

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Start system tools without annoying user account queries

Windows Vista, 7

The security query every time you start

a system tool like Regedit is annoying.

Although the User Account Control can

generally be deactivated, this stops

Windows from warning you before

starting unknown programs.

Calling system tools via the Task Scheduler helps

avoid the annoying security query.

You can avoid the annoying
security query with a trick. Arrange for
an indirect program start using task
scheduling. Subsequently, start the
scheduled task using a shortcut which
then does not trigger off a User Account
Control, although this security mechanism
remains active for all other programs.
Click on ‘Start | Control
Panel | System and Security
| Administrative Tools | Task
Scheduler’. Confirm the User Account
Control query. Click ‘Create Task’ in the
actions pane towards the right. Enter the
name of the task in the ‘General’ tab.
Activate the ‘Run with highest privileges’
option shown below. Then switch to the
‘Actions’ tab and click ‘New’. Select ‘Start
Program’ and click ‘Browse’ to navigate
to the desired program. You can also
directly enter the call with the complete
path, for e.g. ‘C:\Windows\regedit.exe’.
Confirm with ‘OK’ and switch to the
‘Conditions’ tab. Here, deactivate all the
set options and confirm the dialog box
with ‘OK’. In the future, you will also find
this task in the list under ‘Task Scheduler
Library’.
Now, create yet another shortcut
for directly starting the task. For this,

and select the context command ‘New |
Shortcut’. Type the following in the input
field: C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.
exe /RUN /TN ??
For ‘??’, use the name that you have
assigned to the previously defined task.
Both the parameters ensure that the
named task is immediately executed.
Click ‘Continue’ and provide the shortcut
with a suitable, preferably short name
such as ‘regx’. Click ‘Finish’.
If you start the Registry Editor using
this shortcut in the future, there is no
annoying User Account Control query.
This method can also be used for other
programs.

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The online storage service is not just for developers. You can use it as a cheap online backup location for all your important files.

Amazon S3
Back up data using an
affordable cloud service

Amazon S3 is an online storage service where you

only pay for the space you use.

If you are looking for a simple,
inexpensive online Web storage service,
opt for Amazon S3. Contrary to the
popular belief, this service from Amazon
is not just for developers. It is equally
useful for home users. It can be used to
store your data like music fi les, videos,
pictures etc or you can use it to back up
your local hard drive. Instead of folders,
there are buckets in which you can store
your fi les. You have to select a region
where you wish to store the bucket.
Amazon S3 is available in US Standard,
EU (Ireland), US West (Northern
California), Asia Pacifi c (Singapore), and
Asia Pacifi c (Tokyo) regions. Select the
region closest to you so that you can
save time and minimize cost. You can
retrieve the fi les saved in the bucket via a
unique developer assigned key. Amazon
S3 is also very cost eff ective, as it
functions on the policy that you pay only
for what you consume.

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Adjust font size in the Firefox menu

FireFox

Adjust font size in the Firefox
menu

UserChrome.css allows you to change font sizes in

the Firefox interface.

You can increase the font size
of the file menu items and reduce
the font size of the bookmarks if you
fi nd it to be too large. Firefox uses the
Windows default settings, so you could
increase the DPI value of the system font
size. Alternatively, you can customize
the required settings by creating a
'userChrome.css' file instead. You can
find the sample file at ‘C:\Documents and
Settings\<User Name>\Application Data\
Mozilla\Firefox\Profi les\j53h8g9g.default\
chrome'. For example, to set the font size
to 20 px for all elements of the Firefox
interface, add the line '* {font-size: 20pt
!important}'. You can also edit individual
elements, but for that, you will have to
locate the correct CSS selectors. For
more samples of CSS codes, visit : http://
www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html

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Use hardware graphic acceleration now

Chrome 7

Google aspires to boost browser
performance with the help of GPU
acceleration sometime in the future.
But is that possible even now? Adding
a parameter in the command link
of Chrome ensures faster graphical
output.

Enabling GPU acceleration provides improved

graphical performance in Google Chrome.

                         The integration of GPU 
acceleration in Chromehas been set for
version 9 of the browser. However, the
initial steps are already implemented
and can be used in Chrome 7 as well.
You can activate it with a command line

parameter. For this, close Chrome and
right-click on its shortcut on the desktop.
Select ‘Properties’ from the context
menu and activate the ‘Shortcut’ tab.
Add a space after the contents in the
‘Target’ text box and add the parameter
‘--‘-enable-accelerated-compositing’.
Click ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ to close the
dialog box.
The processor of the graphic card
supports rendering the websites once
you reload the browser. Depending on
the computer confi guration, you can get
added speed when displaying websites
with complex graphical content.

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