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PC Pick Me-Ups

I don’t know about you, but I am always looking for easy, new ways to customize my PC to make cyber life just a little easier. We put together a short collection of some of our favourite little tips and tricks that we hope you will find useful too.

Windows PowerToys

The Windows PowerToys are a collection of programs and utilities that developers put together after the release of a program. These extra little programs add fun and functionality, but for some reason never make it into the released version of Windows. While the PowerToys are hugely popular and great care is taken to ensure the programs are as stable as any other software, Microsoft does not officially support them. You can download them in a single file, or choose a custom install to select individual features.

PowerToys are some of the most helpful and practical pieces of software you will find.

For more information on obtaining and installing the PowerToys, click here.

Uninstall Internet Explorer

As you may have found, Internet Explorer is deeply integrated with Windows making it difficult, if not impossible, to uninstall. However, it can, and sometimes must, be uninstalled. Check out Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article for detailed step-by-step instructions on how to uninstall IE 6.0. You’ll also find helpful links to other Knowledge Base articles for uninstalling a few of the earlier 4.x and 5.x versions as well.

Q293907 - How to Uninstall Internet Explorer 6.0

The Real URL

Have you ever seen those extremely long web addresses as you surf the Internet and wondered where on the web you are? As advertisers and marketers become more sophisticated in redirecting Internet surfers and attempting to gain personal information, it becomes more and more difficult to tell by the address bar where you are. Try this handy and simple way to check whether or not you are still on the web site you think you're on.

From any site page, just copy the line below (everything in red bold) and paste it into your browser's address field (replacing the long URL currently in the address bar) and hit enter. A small window should pop up that reveals the name of the web server currently displayed in the browser.

javascript:alert("Actual URL address: " + location.protocol + "//" + location.hostname + "/");

Installing Fonts

Once you've downloaded a new font, how do you install it in Windows so that other applications can use it? Open the Control Panel, and double-click the Fonts icon. If you don't see the Fonts icon when you first open Control Panel, you may have to select Appearance and Themes first. Then look in the top left under "See Also."

Once you have opened the Fonts window, there are two ways to proceed. The first is to drag and drop the font file into the Fonts window. The other way is to click File and choose Install New Font. From there, browse to the drive and folder where you saved or downloaded your new font. Click on the font file then click OK. The file will automatically be copied to the Fonts folder.

Password Protect A Zip File

To password protect a zipped file first open it by double-clicking it. Click the Encryption button and in the dialogue box that appears, enter the password of your choosing. Enter it again in the field below to confirm it, and click OK. To remove the password, simply open the zipped file, click the Encryption button again and delete the password.

For older or other versions of compression software, use the Add a Password feature in the File menu. Simply click File > Add a Password and enter your desired password. To remove it, double click the zipped file and select File > Remove Password.

Secure or Not Secure?

To tell if your Internet Explorer browser is viewing a secure web site, look in the lower right window frame. There you will see an area that describes which Zone you are in. Typically, you will see a globe icon and the word “Internet”, denoting that you are in the Internet Zone. To the left of the globe icon are grayed out boxes. If you see a yellow padlock icon there, then the web site you are viewing is a "secure web site”. If the box is empty, then the web site does not have a secure connection with your browser.

To ensure you are not on a “spoofed” site or to simply check the security information for a secured site, you can double-click the padlock icon to view the security information about that website.

A Slightly More Advanced Defrag

The built-in Windows XP Defragment Utility has a command-line option that allows you to run defrag from a command line, a batch, or script file. There is a hidden switch, however, that does not appear in the help file or syntax display (by typing "defrag /?" without the quotes at a command prompt). If you use the "-b" option, the defrag utility will optimize the boot files and applications (based on usage information that Windows XP tracks) but will leave most of the drive untouched. For example, if you run

defrag c: -b

from the command line, the boot files and some application files will be defragged and possibly moved to a different location on the disk enabling them to be read from the disk faster.

Fast Favourites

Many people use the Internet Explorer Favourites menu to store links to frequently visited web pages. For a quick way to add a web site to the list with the default name and location simply press CTRL-D while viewing the page. The site will automatically be placed on the menu - much easier!

A Better Calculator

By default, the Windows Calculator starts up in Standard Mode. But did you know you can switch to Scientific Mode from the view menu? This gives you a much more functional calculator that can handle computations in decimal, binary, hex, and octal. It also offers many other advanced features so you may wish to read the help file for advice on how to use them properly.

Select Digit Grouping from the View menu. This will insert commas when calculating in decimal and spaces when calculating in hex, which makes it much easier to read.

Still not impressed? Try the Power Calculator that comes with XP Power Toys.

Stop The Clicking

A couple of versions ago, Microsoft added a clicking noise to Internet Explorer so that each time you click on a link, you hear an audible click, which many of us have found annoying after a while. In the Windows XP control panel, open Sounds > Speech and Audio Devices > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds tab. For Windows 2000 it's just Sounds & Multimedia. Scroll down to the Windows Explorer section. Click the event called Start Navigation, and change the setting to none from the dropdown box. Click OK to apply the change. You are now free from the annoying clicking.

Disclaimer - The Micro 2000 Tech Tip is a free service providing information only. While we use reasonable care to see that this information is correct, we do not guarantee it for accuracy, completeness or fitness for a particular purpose. Micro 2000, Inc. shall not be liable for damages of any kind in connection with the use or misuse of this information.