Articles and Tips
Remove Login for Windows XP
Many Windows XP users are the only users on their computer, yet they are asked for a password every time they boot. This can be annoying for newbies because they don't want the login, but they get a message every few weeks saying their password is about to expire and that it must be reset. There is a way to get rid of this. Iúf you wish to get rid of the login for all users on the machine, then go to the Start Menu > Run and type "control userpasswords2". Select the user account you wish to log into automatically and then un-check the option that says "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer". After saving changes, your computer will now auto-login and you will not have to click through a log-in screen.
With this option fixed, you might not even want the Welcome screen. If you want to boot the PC and have it take you directly to the desktop, then go to the Control Panel > User accounts. Then click on "Change the way users log on or off". Un-check "Use the Welcome screen". Click "Apply Options".
Shortcut To Put Your Computer Into Standby
When I am not using my computer, I like to put it into standby mode. This helps save power and cuts down on the heat output when I am not using the computer. A shortcut (literally) that I use is a command line batch script to put the system into standby.
From this Microsoft article, the command is simply:
%windir%System32rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState
The article states that if hibernation is enabled on the machine, running the above command will hibernate the system instead of putting it into standby (so make sure you have the power settings how you want them).
You could also use this command to put your system into standby/hibernation after running nightly scheduled tasks. This would ensure your computer stays in lower power mode while you are away.
Quick and Easy Browser Re-sizing
This tip is mostly useful to people who operate their own websites. Site designers need to test the way their websites work in different screen resolutions, but its a pain to go and change your own screen resolution just to get your browser re-sized. There is a way around this by re-sizing your actual browser window to the size of the resolution you want to simulate. So, for example, if you want to see what your site looks like at 800x600, then you would size the browser window to 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels high.
OK, but how can you do this accurately? By taking advantage of the bookmark system. First create a bookmark of any website. This is just to create the entry. Next, right-click the bookmark and choose Properties. Change the URL to the following:
javascript:self.resizeTo(800,600);
Press OK. If IE warns you "The protocol 'javascript' does ot have a registered program...", just hit Yes.
Now, just choose this favorite to auto-resize your browser. You can even make a shortcut to this bookmark to your Links toolbar for quicker access.
The Best-ever Freeware Utilities List
http://www.techsupportalert.com
Record MP3 Files from Internet Radio
StreamRipper32 is a free Open Source Windows program that allows you to save native format MP3 files from streamed sources such as internet radio. What's really neat is its ability to interpret and extract MP3 metadata from the stream. This means that the saved data will be in the form of separate MP3 files rather than one continuous recording. StationRipper is another utility that takes the same concept further. It's got a more user-friendly interface, an inbuilt database of radio stations and can
process up to 600 different streams. It can also record podcasts. If you can afford the asking price of $14.99 I'd go for this. If not, the freeware StreamRipper32 will still do what you want, though in a slightly less convenient manner.
http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/sr32/
