Improve, Enhance, Make Better Browsing Experience With Internet Explorer

Tweak Internet Explorer to Enhance Speed

Most Internet Explorer (IE) users complain about its slow speed, and how much time it takes to start up, and load web pages. However, a few tweaks will ensure that your IE experience becomes twice as fast. This article will tell you how to carry out these minor modifications – all you have to do is follow the steps listed out below.

IE Tweak 1

1. Launch Internet Explorer, and select the option Tools -> Internet Options.
2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. In the Settings field, scroll down to the heading called Multimedia. There, you have to clear the check-boxes next to the following options (as per your preference):
   1. Play animations in webpages
   2. Play sounds in webpages
   3. Show pictures
4. Click on Apply, and then OK.

However, the problem with this tweak is that it will greatly restrict your internet experience – all at the cost of speed. This might not be an attractive option to many.

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Improve Hibernate / Shut Down Time In Windows XP Tablet

Windows XP takes a long time to shut down, and then to start up – and hence, many users use the Hibernate option so that they do not have to wait 3-4 minutes for their computer to start up. Those of you (with tablet PCs) who like using the Hibernate option might have faced the problem where your tablet PC takes an unnaturally long time (say somewhere around 10-15 minutes) to go into hibernation. This can be extremely frustrating at times as this beats the entire point of using the Hibernate option.

Although there is no straight-up solution to this problem, a few suggestions are put forth in this article. First off, the slow hibernation problem may due to the fact that you have less amount of physical memory (around 1GB, or less). This, combined with the fact that you might have several processes running in the background (or in the foreground too), might cause the slow hibernation problem.

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Windows 7, Vista, USB File Copy / Transfer Speed Slow

When transferring files from one medium to another within the computer or outside it, sometimes due to bugs the process becomes painfully slow. This could be from one folder to another or from the computer to an external hard drive.

These slow transfers leave the user in a fix as how to get things done quickly, this becomes all the more important when the user is in a hurry. The bar that displays “calculated left time” only makes the process slower then helping the entire process. This is enviable regardless of which method one uses, whether he drags and drops it, or he cut –copy –pastes it or he uses “send to”. However there are eleven solutions to fix this problem.

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Increase Torrent Download Speed By Half Open Patch

Increase your torrent download speed by allowing more more concurrent half-open connections. By default Windows limits the number of half open connections to 10. This limit is entered by company Microsoft trying to make slower virus spreading from infect computer and cut down opportunities of participation of a computer in DOS attacks.

This limit imposed by windows on the half open connections could be removed by patching the TCPIP.sys file. Patching the TCPIP could sometimes cause problems with certain routers like frequent auto restarting. So use this patch only as a final resort.

How to Half Open Patch TCPIP.sys - Windows VISTA / Windows XP / Windows 7

This half open patch will allow you to start more concurrent half open connections and hence increase torrent download speed.This Patch works for both 32 and 64 bit versions of windows.

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Acceleration Fix For Mouse in Windows XP

Permanent Acceleration Fix

It seems that even without pointer precision disabled, the mouse under XP is still influenced by an acceleration curve. This is especially noticeable in games. To completely remove mouse acceleration from XP, you will need to go into the registry and adjust the SmoothmouseXYCurve values. Here is how its done.
1. Click Start button
2. Select Run
3. Type 'regedit' in the open textbox
4. Open the tree 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER', select control panel, then select mouse
5. Right clicking, modify the SmoothMouseXCurve and SmoothMouseYCurve hexidecimal values to the following:

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Defragment Hard Drives Using Command Prompt

Today I am sharing the easiest method with you to defragment your hard drive. Though you can perform this task with third party applications also, but why don’t do it a simple way. Here is a simple method to defragment your drives using Command Prompt : 1. Click on Start and then select Run, type CMD in it and hit enter. 2. Suppose you want to defrag your C drive, then in the command box, write defrag C: -f -v and hit enter. The defragmentation will start. Similarly, you can perform this task on diffrent drives by changing the name i.e defrag C: -f -v defrag D: -f -v defrag E: -f -v

Fix Slow Tab and Broken Tab Issues in Internet Explorer 8

There are many users who upgraded to the latest version of Internet Explorer, i.e. Internet Explorer 8. But they are experiencing issues with tabs not working properly or taking a very long time to load. It seems for majority of the users the issue can be attributed to a problem related with actxprxy.dll not installing and registering properly during the upgrade of the browser. If you are facing a similar problem while using Internet Explorer 8, then fixing this issue is very simple. You have to run just a single command. To resolve this issue: 1. Click on the Start Button, and then click Run. 2. In the Run… dialog box, type regsvr32 actxprxy.dll 3. Click OK, and then click OK again when you receive the following message: “DllRegisterServer in actxprxy.dll succeeded“. 4. Reboot your computer for the tab issue should be resolved.

Enhance Your Computer’s Performance With Readyboost

ReadyBoost is a component of Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. It works by using flash memory, USB 2.0 drive, SD card, CompactFlash or any kind of portable flash mass storage system as a drive for disk cache. ReadyBoost is present, with fewer restrictions than in Vista, in the beta version of Windows 7. ReadyBoost is also used to facilitate SuperFetch, an updated version of Windows XP’s prefetcher which performs analysis of boot-time disk usage patterns and creates a cache which is used in subsequent system boots.

In order to take advantage of this feature and boost performance as stated above you will need a flash memory device. But if you really want to see the boost your device should meet some minimum performance and space requirements:

• The device must be at least 64 MB
• The device must be USB 2.0
• It has to be able to read at 3.5 MB/s
• It has to be able to write at 2.5 MB/s

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Pin Folders To Start Menu In Windows XP, Vista Or 7

Windows XP, Vista or 7 allows us to pin our most frequently used application to the Start menu by right clicking on it and selecting Pin to Start Menu. This gives us instant access to these applications. If we want any other item to pinned list, we can do so by dragging and dropping it to the Start button or the Start menu. If we want to remove these pinned item we can do so by right-clicking it and clicking Unpin from Start Menu or Remove from This List. The order of the items in this list can be arranged by dragging and dropping them to the preferred location. To add a folder to the Start Menu Pin list, you may use the drag-drop method as stated above. But we cannot pin our frequently used or favourite folders to the Start menu by right clicking on it. Here is a cool trick to pin your folders to the Start menu by right clicking on the folder and selecting Pin to Start Menu:

• Click on the Start menu button and type regedit in the Start menu search box and press Enter. For XP users select Run from the Start Menu and type regedit in the Run dialog box and press enter.

• This will open the registry editor.

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Enhance Your SATA Hard Disk Performance in Vista

Microsoft Windows Vista users must have used the search box on the Start menu and after using it they must have experienced its sheer power. This search box not only searches in your start menu and control panel but also your personal files like pictures, documents and even your emails. This makes it very useful for everyday tasks. It also saves time and we also tend to get the habit of getting what we want by just typing a few letters and the reason why I love it! Getting back to the topic, if you are having a lot of personal files then this feature of the search box, i.e., searching through files takes toll on its performance and causes it to slow down. But if we narrow down the search to only start menu and control panel then we can easily get some performance benefits. This tip will help us to find the program or setting easily and faster. Follow these steps to make search box faster: 1. First right-click on the Start button and select Properties. 2. Then select the Customize button. 3. Remove the check where it says Search Communications. 4. Then for Search Files set Don’t search for files. 5. Click OK, then OK again and you are done. Enjoy a speedy search and get your results quicker! :)

10 ways to tweak your Linux Boot Process

Linux rarely needs to be rebooted. But when it does, it’s often slow to boot. Fortunately, there are ways to speed things up. Some of these methods are not terribly difficult. (although some, unfortunately, are). Let’s take a look.

#1: Disable unnecessary services

Depending upon the use of the machine, plenty of services won’t be needed. Using Linux just for a desktop? Then you won’t need sendmail, http, and many other services. If your server is only a web server, you can shut off many services as well. To do this, you can go to the Administration menu and take a look at the Services entry. Just deselect all of the services you don’t want to start.

#2: Disable unnecessary kernel modules

If your desktop is wired to the Ethernet, you don’t need to have a wireless kernel module loaded. This task is a bit more difficult and will require a kernel recompilation, which is not the easiest task to undertake. To do this, you will need the kernel sources. Then, follow the standard steps for compiling a kernel. The difference is that you’re going to go through your system and disable all of the modules you don’t need.

The best way to find out what kernel modules currently install and run on your system is to install Bootchart. Not only will this give you a good list of modules, it will illustrate for you what is happening during your system boot. You can also issue the command chkconfig –list | grep 3:on to find out what services are running. Once you know what loading modules you don’t need, you can remove them during a kernel recompilation. While you’re at it, compile the kernel to exactly match your architecture.

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Speed up Windows Vista booting process

In Windows Vista while booting it uses only a single core of your PC irrespective of multiple cores available. To utilize your processor during boot up follow the steps given below. How Enable booting up with multiple cores: 1) Go to start->run->msconfig and press enter. 2) Select the boot tab. 3) Click on Advanced Options. 4) Check the appropriate number of ports according to your system configuration. 5) Click OK.

THE TRIPLE CLICK TRICK

No, you don't have to know how to skate or dance to do this... Selecting text can be a fiddly experience, especially if you are using a portable computer with an input device that doesn't work as well as a traditional mouse. So, when you want to cut and paste or copy and paste text, try the triple click. The results vary slightly from one program to another, but most often a single click locates the cursor in the text you are pointing to, a second click highlights the word, and a third click expands the highlighting to the entire paragraph. Ofcourse, you can try this trick in this paragraph... hit mouse button three times... This is much faster and more convenient than trying to drag the pointer over a paragraph. After you have highlighted your text, remember to use the right mouse button to access the shortcuts to "cut," "copy" and "paste." There is no point in clicking buttons at the top of the screen or bringing down the Edit menu when the functions you need are right at your finger tip...

Services You Can Disable in Windows Vista

There are several services you can disable to help improve performance. Desktop Window Manager Session Manager - Provides Desktop Window Manager startup and maintenance services. If you don't plan on using Aero Glass, you can disable this service. Diagnostic Policy Service - Enables problem detection, troubleshooting and resolution for Windows components Set to Disabled Diagnostic Service Host - Same as above Diagnostic System Host - Same as above Offline Files - The Offline Files service performs maintenance activities on the Offline Files cache, responds to user logon and logoff events, implements the internals of the public API, and dispatches interesting events to those interested in Offline Files activities and changes in cache state. Terminal Services - Allows users to connect interactively to a remote computer. Remote Desktop and Terminal Server depend on this service. If you don't use either of these, then you can disable the service. Windows Error Reporting Service - Allows errors to be reported when programs stop working or responding and allows existing solutions to be delivered. Windows Search - Formerly this was the Indexing Service. Provides content indexing.

Adding Custom Sound Event in XP

We all know how to change a sound when window starts. But what if we want to create a Custom sound event. What if we like to add a sound whenever a program is opened? Just imagine how good it would be to add a sound whenever Firefox starts, After all sometimes it takes long to open. To add a custom sound effect, you need to open your registry, and please do not forget to backup your registry before making any changes. 1. Go to Start –> Run, type Regedit 2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps 3. Right Click on Apps, New –> Key 4. Name the key with the programs EXE file, like Firefox for Firefox, Winword for Office word, without the extension 5. Now on right pane, right click Default, and click Modify and type in the same application name 6. Right click on new key and create a new key, and name whatever you want to Custom Sound 7. Go to Control Panel –> Sounds and Audio devices –> Sounds, there you should be able to see the Custom sound event you added. You can now assign any sound event you want to. Do try it, an great tip to personalize your system more :)

Mozilla Firefox Cool Stuff !!!

Hello Friends , Here I am writing some cool Firefox tricks which are very helpful in using Mozilla Firefox. As we know Mozilla Firefox is the Best and very good browser with extensions, add-ons, Language Packs, Plug ins and themes and many new things by which you can execute JavaScript. Mozilla Firefox also has other features like Tabbed browsing, Pop up blocking, Cookie Manager, Download Manager, pause downloads, JavaScript Console, JavaScript Debugger, Select text and perform search, View Selection Source, Cross-platform, Display icons in tabs and address bar, HTTP Pipe lining, XML Base, CSS generated content, CSS2 selectors, Caret Browsing etc. Below are some tricks and tips by which you can use Mozilla Firefox easily. 1. Here are the Keyboard shortcuts. - Space bar (page down) - Ctrl+K (go to search box) - Alt-N (find next) - Ctrl+L (go to address bar) - Ctrl+= (increase text size) - Ctrl+D (bookmark page) - F5 (reload) - Ctrl+- (decrease text size) - Ctrl-W (close tab) - Alt-Home (go to home page) - Ctrl+F (find) - Shift-Spacebar (page up) - Ctrl+T (new tab) 2. Sometimes in hurry by mistake you click on close button of Firefox tabs. But In Mozilla Firefox you can remove or move close tab button by about:config. Type about:config in address bar then search for browser.tabs.closeButton in search bar. When you find it double click on it. It will show you a prompt with by default value 1. You can change it to different values for different behaviors. - Enter 0 to display a close button on the active tab only. - Enter 1 (default Value) to display close button to all tabs. - Enter 2 to don’t display any close buttons. - Enter 3 to display single close button at the end of the tab bar. 3. Now we know Mozilla Firefox have giving feature of multiple tabs , so sometimes it is very hard to handle multiple tabs with mouse, so you can also handle tabs by keyboard. Below are some tips to handle tabs by keyboard. - Ctrl+Tab (rotate forward among tabs) - Ctrl+Shft+Tab (rotate to the previous tab) - Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab) 4. Here is the Mouse shortcuts for Mozilla Firefox. - Middle click on link (opens in new tab) - Shift-scroll down (previous page) - Shift-scroll up (next page) - Ctrl-scroll up (decrease text size) - Ctrl-scroll down (increase text size) - Middle click on a tab (closes tab) 5. about:config : This is a feature of Mozilla which lists aaplication and configuration setting setting of Mozilla. You can Get all settings configuration of your Mozilla by enter about:config in your address bar of Mozilla. 6. If you want to speed up your Mozilla Firefox then - Type about:config into the address bar and hit return. Type network. http in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them): - Set network.http.pipelining to true - Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to true - Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once. - Now, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to 0?. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Disable Autorun

If your pen drive is affected by any virus/worm/malware then it is suggested to disable the autorun function in your computer. Here are the steps to disable the autorun. 1.Go to start ->Run Type gpedit.msc press Enter 2.In that go to Administrative Templates->System->Turn off autoplay 3.Now set it to Enabled if you want to turn off the autorun feature. The default value will not configured 4.There is one more option in it We have to select between All drives/ CD-ROM drives Select CD-ROM drive if you want to disable autorun only for CDS or select all drives if you want to turn off autorun for all drives including your pen drives or flash drives

Use Pen Drive as RAM

Follow these steps :- 1. Insert the Pen Drive (1GB atleast) in the USB port try to prefer 4GB. 2. Let the PC do what it wants to do to detect it.. 3. After it finished his work, you have to act smart, " Here goes the real thing " 4. Right Click on My Computer -> Properties 5. Advanced -> Performance Settings 6. Advanced -> Change 7. Select the Pen Drive 8. Click on Custom Size " Check the value of space available " 9. Enter the same in the Initial and the Max columns " You just used the space of the PenDrive as a Virtual Memory " Restart... " VOILA !!! Your PC is fast and furious "

Windows Vista Error Fix:Windows Experience Index Doesn't Work

Sometimes your Windows Experience Index doesn't work on your Windows Vista computer and forwarded an error message.Then do the following steps to solve this problem: Go to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT, and look at the winsat.log.This was the error message you saw in there: 198406 (3144) - winsat\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: media '-input {winsatencode.wmv} -encode {winsat.prx}' 198828 (3144) - winsat\main.cpp:1430: > Assessment FAILED due to an error It appears to mean that around the time it tried to play a test media file,it failed.Go to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT. Try to play the files winsatencode.wmv and winsat.wmv using your default media player in windows vista. Do they Play?If so, try this. In C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT, rename the folder DataStore to OldDatastore, and try running the Update My Score again. Is Windows Media Player 11 is the default player for .wmv files on your Windows Vista computer?Yes, both files are only about a second long, winsatencode.wmv seems to play even faster than the other, and ends abruptly. As long as Windows Media Player played it, and didn't freeze or crash, things should be okay. To check the file, try running the System File Checker. To do this, right click on Command Prompt (Start Menu\Programs\Accessories), and choose Run as Administrator.Copy the following, and Paste it after the prompt: sfc /SCANFILE="C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\winsatencode.wmv" Press Enter. Then do the same for the other file: sfc /SCANFILE="C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\winsat.wmv" Press Enter. If things are okay and you are given the text message "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations", or that it found errors and they were corrected, proceed to renaming the folder DataStore to OldDatastore, under C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT, and try running the Update My Score again. Did you try renaming the DataStore folder under C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT to OldDatastore? If that didn't work, rename it back to DataStore. Open the DataStore folder, and create a New Folder within the DataStore folder. Cut and Paste, or Drag, all the XML Documents (.xml files) in DataStore into the New Folder. Drag the New Folder to your desktop. Then try to update your score. If this doesn't work, move the .xml files back as they were, and delete the empty New Folder. If it does work, delete the New Folder, and all the files in it. It's a fact that the Windows Experience Index Score doesn't affect how your Windows Vista computer runs. The only caveat I'm aware of is that you can't turn on the Aero theme unless your Windows Vista computer meets a certain criteria of the Windows Experience Index.

Increasing options in add/remove programs

Not a fan of MSN Messenger? don't want Windows Media Player on your system? Fair enough, but if you go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, by default none of Windows XP's 'built in' programs are visible. it's fairly easy to change, though... just open the file X:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf (where X: is the drive letter where Windows XP is installed) in Notepad. You should see a section of the file something like this: [Components] NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4 WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7 Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7 Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7 NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7 iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7 com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7 dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7 IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7 TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2 msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6 ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7 fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7 AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7 msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7 IEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,ieaccess.inf,,7 This is a list of all components installed at the moment. I've taken the example of MSN Messenger - the program entry called 'msmsgs', third-last line. You can see the word 'hide' highlighted - this is the string which tells Windows not to display the component in the Add/Remove Programs list. Fix this up by simply deleting the word 'hide' like so: msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 To this: msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7 Now, after restarting, you should be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Programs list. If you want to be able to quickly view and remove all components, simply open the sysoc.inf file and do a global find and replace for the word ",hide" and replace it with a single comma ",".