99 ways to make your computer blazingly fast

Over the last several years working in IT for various companies as a Systems Administrator, Network Administrator, and Help Desk professional, I’ve written and learned about many ways to increase the performance of not only my PC, but also of the many PCs on my networks ranging from Windows 98 to Windows Vista.
In this article, I hope to compile a complete list of all the different methods and tricks that I’ve used to get the last bit of juice out of a slow PC. Whether you are using an old PC or the latest and greatest in hardware, you can still use some of these to make your PC run faster.
Note that since I write two blogs, Help Desk Geek and Online Tech Tips, I have previously written about many performance tips already which I will link back to throughout. If I have not written about it, I’ve throw in a link to a relevant article from some of my other favorite sites. This list is in no particular order, just written in the order that I could think of them.
There are probably a lot of great tweaks and performance hacks that I’ve missed here, so feel free to chime in with comments! Enjoy!
1. Defragment your computer hard disk using free tools like SmartDefrag.
2. You should also defragment your Windows pagefile and registry.
3. Clean up hard drive disk space being taken up by temporary files, the recycle bin, hibernation and more. You can also use a tool like TreeSize to determine what is taking up space on your hard drive.
4. Load up Windows faster by using Startup Delayer, a free program that will speed up the boot time of Windows by delaying the startup of programs.
5. Speaking of startup programs, many of them are useless and can be turned off. Use the MSCONFIG utility to disable startup programs.
6. By default, the size of the paging file is controlled by Windows, which can cause defragmentation. Also, the paging file should be on a different hard drive or partition than the boot partition. Read here on the rules for best paging file performance.
7. In Windows XP and Vista, the Windows Search indexing service is turned on for all local hard drives. Turning off indexing is a simple way to increase performance.
8. If you don’t care about all the fancy visual effects in Windows, you can turn them off by going to Performance Options.
9. You can optimize the Windows boot time using a free program called Bootvis from Microsoft.
10. Clean your registry by removing broken shortcuts, missing shared DLLs, invalid paths, invalid installer references and more. Read about the 10 best and free registry cleaners.
11. One of the main reasons why PC’s are slow is because of spyware. There are many programs to remove spyware including Ad-Aware, Giant Antispyware, SUPERAntiSpyware, and more.
12. If you have a deeper spyware infection that is very hard to remove, you can use HijackThis to remove spyware.
13. Remove unwanted pre-installed software (aka junk software) from your new PC using PC Decrapifier.
14. Disable unnecessary Windows services, settings, and programs that slow down your computer.
15. Tweak Windows XP and tweak Windows Vista settings using free programs
16. Disable UAC (User Account Control) in Windows Vista
17. Tweak your mouse settings so that you can copy and paste faster, scroll faster, navigate quickly while browsing and more. Read here to learn how to tweak your mouse.
18. Delete temporary and unused files on your computer using a free program like CCleaner. It can also fix issues with your registry.
19. Delete your Internet browsing history, temporary Internet files, cookies to free up disk space.
20. Clean out the Windows prefetch folder to improve performance.
21. Disable the XP boot logo to speed up Windows boot time.
22. Reduce the number of fonts that your computer has to load up on startup.
23. Force Windows to unload DLLs from memory to free up RAM.
24. Run DOS programs in separate memory spaces for better performance.
25. Turn off system restore only if you regularly backup your Windows machine using third party software.
26. Move or change the location of your My Documents folder so that it is on a separate partition or hard drive.
27. Turn off default disk performance monitors on Windows XP to increase performance.
28. Speed up boot time by disabling unused ports on your Windows machine.
29. Use Process Lasso to speed up your computer by allowing it to make sure that no one process can completely overtake the CPU.
30. Make icons appear faster while browsing in My Computer by disabling search for network files and printers.
31. Speed up browsing of pictures and videos in Windows Vista by disabling the Vista thumbnails cache.
32. Edit the right-click context menu in Windows XP and Vista and remove unnecessary items to increase display speed.
33. Use the Windows Performance Toolkit and the trace logs to speed up Windows boot time.
34. Speed up your Internet browsing by using an external DNS server such as OpenDNS.
35. Improve Vista performance by using ReadyBoost, a new feature whereby Vista can use the free space on your USB drive as a caching mechanism.
36. If you have a slow Internet connection, you can browse web pages faster using a service called Finch, which converts it into simple text.
37. Use Vista Services Optimizer to disable unnecessary services in Vista safely.
38. Also, check out my list of web accelerators, which are programs that try to prefetch and cache the sites you are going to visit.
39. Speed up Mozilla Firefox by tweaking the configuration settings and by installing an add-on called FasterFox.
40. Learn how to build your own computer with the fastest parts and best hardware.
41. Use a program called TeraCopy to speed up file copying in Windows XP and Vista.
42. Disable automatic Last Access Timestamp to speed up Windows XP.
43. Speed up the Start Menu in Vista by hacking the MenuShowDelay key in the registry.
44. Increase the FileSystem memory cache in Vista to utilize a system with a large amount of RAM.
45. Install more RAM if you are running XP with less than 512 MB or Vista with less than 1 GB of RAM.
46. Shut down XP faster by reducing the wait time to kill hung applications.
47. Make sure that you have selected “Adjust for best performance” on the Performance tab in System Properties.
48. If you are reinstalling Windows, make sure that you partition your hard drives correctly to maximize performance.
49. Use Altiris software virtualization to install all of your programs into a virtual layer that does not affect the registry or system files.
50. Create and install virtual machines for free and install junk program, games, etc into the virtual machines instead of the host operating system. Check out Sun openxVM.
51. Do not clear your paging file during shutdown unless it is needed for security purposes. Clearing the paging file slows down shutdown.
52. If your XP or Vista computer is not using NFTS, make sure you convert your FAT disk to the NTFS file system.
53. Update all of your drivers in Windows, including chipset and motherboard drivers to their latest versions.
54. Every once in a while run the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup utility.
55. Enable DMA mode in Windows XP for IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in Device Manager.
56. Remove unnecessary or old programs from the Add/Remove dialog of the Control Panel.
57. Use a program click memtest86 or Prime95 to check for bad memory on your PC.
58. Determine your BIOS version and check the manufactures website to see if you need to update your BIOS.
59. Every once in a while, clean your mouse, keyboard and computer fans of dust and other buildup.
60. Replace a slow hard drive with a faster 7200 RPM drive, SATA drive, or SAS drive.
61. Changing from Master/Slave to Cable Select on your hard drive configuration can significantly decrease your boot time.
62. Perform a virus scan on your computer regularly. If you don’t want to install virus protection, use some of the free online virus scanners.
63. Remove extra toolbars from your Windows taskbar and from your Internet browser.
64. Disable the Windows Vista Sidebar if you’re not really using it for anything important. All those gadgets take up memory and processing power.
65. If you have a SATA drive and you’re running Windows Vista, you can speed up your PC by enabling the advanced write caching features.
66. Learn how to use keyboard shortcuts for Windows, Microsoft Word, Outlook, or create your own keyboard shortcuts.
67. Turn off the Aero visual effects in Windows Vista to increase computer performance.
68. If you are technically savvy and don’t mind taking a few risks, you can try to overclock your processor.
69. Speed up the Send To menu in Explorer by typing “sendto” in the Run dialog box and deleting unnecessary items.
70. Make sure to download all the latest Windows Updates, Service Packs, and hot fixes as they “normally” help your computer work better.
71. Make sure that there are no bad sectors or other errors on your hard drive by using the ScanDisk orchkdsk utility.
72. If you are not using some of the hardware on your computer, i.e. floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, USB ports, IR ports, Firewire, etc, then go into your BIOS and disable them so that they do not use any power and do not have to be loaded during boot up.
73. If you have never used the Recent Documents feature in Windows, then disable it completely as a long list can affect PC performance.
74. One basic tweak that can help in performance is to disable error reporting in Windows XP
75. If you don’t care about a pretty interface, you should use the Windows Classic theme under Display Properties.
76. Disable short filenames if you are using NTFS by running the following command: fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1. It will speed up the file creation process.
77. If you have lots of files in a single folder, it can slow down Explorer. It’s best to create multiple folders and spread out the files between the folders.
78. If you have files that are generally large, you might want to consider increasing the cluster size on NTFS to 16K or even 32K instead of 4K. This will help speed up opening of files.
79. If you have more than one disk in your PC, you can increase performance by moving your paging file to the second drive and formatting the volume using FAT32 instead of NTFS.
80. Turn off unnecessary features in Vista by going to Control Panel, choosing Uninstall a program, and then clicking on Turn Windows features on and off. You can turn off Remote Differential Compression, Tablet PC components, DFS replication service, Windows Fax & Scan, Windows Meeting Space, and lots more.
81. Install a free or commercial anti-virus program to help protect against viruses, etc. Make sure to use an anti-virus program that does not hog up all of your computer resources.
82. Completely uninstall programs and applications using a program like Revo Uninstaller. It will get rid of remnants left behind by normal uninstalls.
83. If you know what you are doing, you can install several hard drives into your machine and set them up in RAID 0, RAID 5, or other RAID configurations.
84. If you are using USB 1.0 ports, upgrade to 2.0. If you have a Firewire port, try to use that instead of a USB port since Firewire is faster than USB right now.
85. Remove the drivers for all old devices that may be hidden in Device Manager that you no longer use.
86. A more extreme option is to choose a faster operating system. If you find Vista to be slow, go with Windows XP. Switching to Mac or Linux is also an option.
87. One of the easiest ways to speed up your PC is to simply reformat it. Of course, you want to backup your data, but it is the best way to get your computer back to peak performance.
88. Speed up Internet browsing in IE by increasing the number of max connections per server in the registry.
89. If you use uTorrent to download torrents, you can increase the download speeds by tweaking the settings.
90. If you have a desktop background, make sure it’s a small and simple bitmap image rather than a fancy picture off the Internet. The best is to find a really small texture and to tile it.
91. For the Virtual Memory setting in Windows (right-click on My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Virtual Memory), make sure the MIN and MAX are both the same number.
92. If you search on Google a lot or Wikipedia, you can do it much faster on Vista by adding them to the Vista Start Menu Instant Search box.
93. If you have a custom built computer or a PC that was previously used, make sure to check the BIOS for optimal settings such as enabled CPU caches, correctly set IDE/SATA data transfer modes, memory timings, etc. You can also enable Fast/Quick boot if you have that option.
94. If you have a SCSI drive, make sure the write cache is enabled. You can do so by opening the properties of the SCSI drive in Windows.
95. If you have a machine with an older network card, make sure to enable the onboard processor for the network card, which will offload tasks from the CPU.
96. If you are using Windows Vista, you can disable the Welcome Center splash screen that always pops up.
97. If you already have anti-spyware software installed, turn off Windows Defender protection.
98. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows and have 4GB of RAM or more, you can force Windows to see and use all of the RAM by enabling PAE.
99. Buy a new computer!!! Pretty easy eh?

Window Shortcuts

Ctrl+F2 (5 star tip) - moves focus to the "Object" combo-box above the Code window. ...from here you can select the procedure you're editing by using DownArrow to drop-down the combo-box's list of objects. Press the first letterof the object name, or UpArrow/DownArrow/Home/End to navigate through the list. Home is good for selecting the (General) section, where non-event-code procedures live. Then, press Tab to toggle between the "Object" and "Procedure" combo-boxes and navigate similarly. Press Return to selectone, and you'll be back in the Code window at the correct position.
Ctrl+Shift+F2 - I mentioned this one before. Greg adds that it works without first pressing Shift+F2, as it cycles through the last 8 positions visited, not just where you were before you viewed the definition of a variable.
F3 - find the next occurrence of text last searched for
Shift+F3 - find the previous occurrence of text last searched for
Ctrl+F3 - find the next occurrence of selected text, or the word under the cursor
Ctrl+Shift+F3 - find the previous occurrence of selected text, or the word under the cursor
The general rule-of-thumb for the previous four is as follows: "Press shift to search backwards; press ctrl to start searching for something different".
F6 - (when the Code window is split into two panes) - toggles between the panes. To split the panes first (or indeed un-split afterwards), press alt+W, P.
Ctrl+Shift+F9 - clear all breakpoints
Tab (when a block is selected) - indent the whole block
Shift+Tab (when a block is selected) - un-indent the whole block
Ctrl+Z - undo the last change. The last 20 changes can be backed out of.
Ctrl+I - show the quick-info tooltip. Tells you the type of variable,or value of a constant, at the cursor.
Ctrl+Shift+I - show the parameter-info tooltip. Tells you the parameters required in a function or sub call, without having to insert a spurious comma and delete it! (which you can't do anyway in modules that are marked as read-only).
Ctrl+G - show the Immediate window.
Ctrl+F - show the Find dialog
Ctrl+H - show the Replace dialog
...within Find and Replace dialogs, the highlighted text (or the word underthe cursor is automatically placed in the Find What field). Press Return to Find Next, Esc to close the dialog, or alt+letter to focus and/or toggle onthe other controls [duh...?]
Ctrl+Y - remove the current line without having to select it. This one was contributed by Joacim Andersson.
Object window shortcuts (i.e. the forms)
Shift+F4 - show the custom property pages for the selected object
Arrow keys - UpArrow/DownArrow/LeftArrow/RightArrow
Select a different control on the container.
With Shift pressed, enlarge/shrink the selected control(s).
With Ctrl pressed, move the selected control(s) around the container.
Tab or Shift-Tab - select the next/previous control in the tab order
Project Explorer window
Tab - switch between projects in a group
Down Arrow - move down the tree
Up Arrow - move up the tree
Right Arrow - expand a folder, or go to the first child node
Left Arrow - collapse (if a folder) and go to the parent node
Numeric Plus - expand the folder
Numeric Minus - collapse the folder
Property window
Tab or Shift+Tab - cycle forwards/backwards through the control drop-down, the tabs, the property name, and the property value. This method can be useful for changing (or just reviewing) several control's properties, eg the TabIndexes (TabIndices? :-). Useful if certain controls are on hidden areas of the form (eg on different tabs of your form) andyou don't want to hunt them down and click (ugh!) on them.
The "Categorized" tab in Properties is dead useful for hiding the other properties if you're reviewing the sizes of your controls. Just click on all the minus signs except for the one next to the "Position" category. Did I say click?! I meant Tab to a property category, press LeftArrow to collapse it, then press DownArrow to move down to the next property category.
Break Mode
Shift+F5 - re-run from the start (surely not that useful?)
F8 - step into the current statement
Shift+F8 - step over the current statement
Ctrl+F8 - run upto the statement under the flashing cursor
Ctrl+Shift+F8 - run the rest of the current procedure and break againwhen exiting back to the calling statement
F8 based shortcuts can also be used from design mode, to start the project and immediately single-step through the code, but I can imagine that stepping through the start-up code of a big project would be very tedious. In fact I bet you'd get a misleading impression of the program flow, because break mode tends to suppress certain events from firing.
Ctrl+F9 - set the statement under the flashing cursor as the next one to execute.
Ctrl+L - view (and navigate) the call stack
Miscallaneous
Ctrl+F4 - close the current child window (as per bog-standard Windows)
Ctrl+F6 or Ctrl+Tab (or with Shift) - cycle forwards/backwards through the Code windows and Object windows
Shift+F7 - go to the Object window. This is the complement of F7 whichyou mentioned.
You want to make more space for the Code window while programming? Hiding the Project Explorer, Properties and Immediate windows is easy:- Ctrl+R, menu, H to hide the Project Explorer window, F4, menu, H to hide the Properties window, Ctrl+G, menu, H to hide the Immediate window.
Here are 2 really shortcuts courtesy of Dean Hutchings:
Assuming you have "Break On All Errors" selected, you can do the following:
Alt+F5 - continue past error dialog
Alt+F8 - step past error dialog
These are great if you want to be sure to see all errors but don't want to mess around with toggling the error trapping settings.
Not necessarily a keyboard shortcut for VB so much as Windows in general; any ListView (Explorer folders included) which is in report (ie, details) view can have its column widths auto-resized by pressing Ctrl+NumericPlus.

All I can say is: Thank you, Greg. These are surely to improve coding speed. In addition, Greg provided some stupid mouse tricks as well, which will be included in an upcoming article.


There are many more simple keyboard shortcuts that for some reason are seldom used by programmers. Below are some of them:

Place the cursor on a function name, then press Shift-F2 combination and it will take you to that function.

Press Ctrl-Shift-F2 and it will take you back. These two combos have been there since the dawn of VB.

Have you ever lost the Project Explorer window? Press Ctrl-R to bring it to life.

Do a quick save before running. Press Ctrl-S.

Never select Start button. Always do a Start With Full Compile. Either press Ctrl-F5 or hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the Start button. (Or as some of my less than competent co-workers call it: The 'Play' button).

Want to do a quick comment/uncomment of your code? See this tip.

Do you want to quickly see the value of a variable? Place a cursor on the variable and press Shift-F9.

To toggle a breakpoint, use F9.

Ctrl-A will select all the code in the Code Window. BTW, if you didn't know this one, please pack up your copy of VB and return it to the store for a full refund. You don't deserve to be a programmer.

Are you sick and tired of going to the Project menu and selecting Components? Simply press Ctrl-T.

To bring up properties for any object in VB, press F4. To bring up code, press F7 on any obj

25 Photoshop Tutorials for Creating 3D Text Effects

With some creativity you can create amazing text effects with Photoshop. In this post we’ll feature 25 of the best tutorials for creating 3D text effects. There are a variety of different types of effects, so hopefully you can find some new tricks to learn.

If you’re looking for examples of inspirational uses of text, please see our new gallery site, TypeInspire.

Awesome Milk Typography Effect in Photoshop

Create a 3D Text Scene Using Photoshop

Photoshop Tutorial: Stunning 3D Effect in 30 Minutes

3D Text on Fire

3D Text Effects

Design Soft Stylized 3D Type

Kaboom! Exploding Text

Valentines Day - Photoshop Style

Glowing and Sparkling Intense Light 3D Logo

Stunning Neon Light 3D Typography

Create a Spectacular Grass Text Effect in Photoshop

Creating a Spectacular Flaming Meteor Effect on Text

Create a Spectacular Style Text Effect

Hell of Tutorial in Photoshop

Create a Dream Design with 3D Typography

Papercraft Text Effect

Create a 3D Flowery Text Effect

How to Create a Realistic 3D Stone Text Effect

Create 3D Text with Some Extreme Lighting

3D Text Effect in Photoshop (video)

Transformers Effect

Create a Colorful 3D Text Explosion

3D Text Effect

How to Create High Quality Metal 3D Text in Photoshop

How to Quickly Create a Stylish Retro Text Effect

The desktop environment can help a user be more productive by providing easy access to the most used resources, or it can hinder productivity by being cluttered, disorganized, and difficult to locate icons when you need them. When you customize the desktop environment, you will focus on making access to resources as easy and efficient as possible.Four areas that you can customize are the:
Start menu
Startup folder
Taskebar
My Documents folderCustomizing the Start Menu
Clicking Start displays a menu that enables users to easily gain access to the most used items on the computer. The following sections describe the organization of the Start menu and provide instruction about how to customize it.Examining the Windows XP Professional Start Menu The right frame of the Start menu consists of three sections that display standard folders and utilities. The left frame also consists of three sections. The top section displays the pinned programs, which are programs that are manually attached to the top left of the Start menu. The default e-mail program and browser always appear in pinned programs. Beneath the pinned programs, recently used programs appear.
The Start menu is color-coded. The white area of the Start menu is user-based, while the light blue area is operating-system-based. The light blue area can only be customized in limited ways. When customizing the different sections of the Start menu, you have the choice of customizing it for the user who is currently logged on, or for all users on the computer.

Customizing the Start Menu for All UsersWhen you customize the Start menu for all users, you are adding an item that anyone logged on to the computer can use.You can add a submenu to the Start menu for easy access to a group of programs. For example, if everyone who uses a computer performs the same job function, you might want to add a submenu that contains the programs that the employees use most. You can also add to the Start menu a shortcut to a specific program or resource, or drag a frequently used item in a submenu onto the main Start menu.Adding a Submenu for All UsersTo add a submenu for all users, perform the following steps:
Right-click Start, and then click Open all Users.
Double-click the folder to which you want to add the submenuIf you place the submenu in the Start Menu folder, it becomes pinned to the top of the All Programs menu. If you place the submenu in the Programs folder, it will be placed alphabetically in the list of programs.
On the File menu, point to New, and then click Folder.
Type a name for the folder, and then press ENTER.
In My Computer or Windows Explorer, drag any programs or shortcuts that you want to appear on the menu into the folder that you just created.Adding a Shortcut for All UsersTo add a shortcut for all users, perform the following steps:
Right-click Start, click Open All Users, click File, point to New, and then click Shortcut.
Type the location of the item for which you want to create a shortcut, or click Browse to locate the item, and then click OK.
Click Next, type a name for the shortcut, and then click Finish.

Customizing the Start Menu for Individual UsersThere may be instances when you will want to customize the Start menu for a particular user only. You can add shortcuts and submenus, and pin programs to an individual's Start menu.Adding a Submenu for an Individual UserThe process for adding a submenu to an individual's Start menu is similar to adding a submenu for all users. The difference between the two procedures is the first step of the process, which changes as follows:
Right-click Start, click Explore All Users, expand the folder of the user whose Start menu that you want to customize, and then click Start Menu.Adding a Shortcut for an Individual UserTo add a shortcut to an individual's Start menu, perform the following steps:
Right-click the object for which you want to create a shortcut, and then click Create Shortcut.
Drag, or cut and paste, the shortcut into the individual's Start menu or Programs folder.Changing Start Menu PropertiesYou can alter the properties of the Start menu; for example, you can change whether items are displayed as links or menus or not displayed at all. When you make this type of alteration, the change affects only the logged on user.To make changes to Start menu properties, perform these steps:
Right-click Start, click Properties, click Customize, make desired changes on the General and Advanced tabs, and then click OK twice.Note: You can use the Start menu that is used in previous versions of Microsoft Windows instead of the Start menu in Windows XP by changing the properties of the Start menu.Pinning a Program to the Start MenuPrograms are the only items that you can pin to the Start menu. When you pin a program to the Start menu, it applies only to the user that is currently logged on. To accomplish this task:
Right-click the program that you want to pin to the Start menu, and then click Pin to Start menu.Customizing the Startup FolderIf users always use a particular program or programs as soon as they log on, it is convenient to have those programs automatically start when the user logs on. To enable a program to start automatically when a user logs on, place a shortcut to that program in the appropriate Startup folder. You can customize the Startup folder for all users or individual users.To enable programs to start automatically upon logon, perform the following steps:
Right-click Start, and then click Explore All Users.
Expand either All Users or a specific user.
Expand Start Menu, and then click Programs in the left pane.
In the right pane, copy the shortcut for the programs that you want to start automatically upon logon.
Expand Programs, right-click Startup, and then click Paste. The shortcuts to the desired programs will now appear in the Startup folder. When the user whose Startup folder you have customized next logs on, the programs will automatically start.Customizing the TaskbarThe taskbar in Windows XP Professional is substantially different than it is in previous versions of Windows.Adding Programs to the Quick Launch ToolbarTo add frequently used icons to the Quick Launch toolbar for easy, one-click access, perform the following steps:
Right-click an empty area of the Quick Launch bar, and then click Open Folder.
On the File menu, click New, and then click Shortcut.
Type the location of, or browse to, the desired program, click Next, and then click Finish.
Alternately, you can drag any program icon onto the Quick Launch toolbar, which will automatically create a shortcut to the program.
Customizing Taskbar Properties
You can easily customize the properties of the taskbar. For example, you can control whether the taskbar is automatically hidden, whether inactive icons are hidden, and when individual icons should display in the notification area. To customize taskbar behavior:
Right-click an empty area on the taskbar, and then click Properties.
Make desired changes on the Taskbar tab, click Customize, make desired changes to individual notification icons, and then click OK twice.
Adding Toolbars to the TaskbarThere are a number of different toolbars that you can add to the taskbar. The following table delineates the functionality of those toolbars, and how to customize them.
Toolbar
Function
To customize
Address
Provides a Web browser address bar into which you can type the URL (uniform resource locator) to a Web site that you want to open.
Each time you type a URL into this toolbar, that URL will become part of a list from which you can choose.
Links
Provides a quick way to open Web pages, shortcuts, and other items.
Drag the Web page's icon from the Address bar directly to the Links bar. Or drag any link from a Web page, your Favorites bar, or your desktop onto the Links bar.
Desktop
Provides easy access to all items on the desktop.
Because this toolbar shows all items on the desktop, you can change what is available on the toolbar by adding or removing items from the desktop. Users who do not like a crowded desktop can hide all items on the desktop and open them from this toolbar.
Language Band
Provides easy access to text tools such as IMEs and writing and speech recognition programs. It also provides a way to switch between languages and keyboard layouts.
This bar automatically displays when you have any of the appropriate programs installed. The buttons displayed depend on which programs are installed.
New Toolbar
Provides a quick link to any folder or network place on your computer.
Right-click the taskbar, point to Toolbars, click New Toolbar, move to the desired resource, and then click OK. The toolbar will be named the same as the resource, and you will be able to gain access to everything within that resource from the toolbar.Customizing the My Documents FolderMy Documents is a commonly used folder for storing a user's data. Customizing this folder can improve a user's productivity by enabling that user to more easily and efficiently store and gain access to data.A user's My Documents folder is by default available only to that user and administrators when on an NTFS file system partition. However, My Documents can be shared, and another user can be given specific permissions to the folder.You can change the default properties of the My Documents folder. To gain access to these configurable properties, click Start, right-click My Documents, and then click Properties.
Changing Folder LocationYou can change the location of the My Documents folder from its usual position within Documents and Settingsuser_nameMy Documents (where user_name is the user's logon name). You may want to change the location of the folder when you want to move the storage of documents to:
A local drive other than the one on which programs reside, so that programs and user data are stored separately.
A network share, to prevent the loss of data if the local disk becomes corrupted. Note: If you choose to remove My Documents to a server, be sure that both the local computer and the server are configured for caching.To change the location of the My Documents folder:
Click Start, right-click the My Documents folder, and then click Properties.
On the Target tab, click Move.
In the Select a Destination dialog box, browse to the desired location, and then click OK twice. Customizing Folder AttributesThe My Documents folder, like all other folders, has four important attributes that can be customized:To change the attributes of the My Documents folder:
Click Start, right-click the My Documents folder, and then click Properties.
On the General tab, click Advanced, select or clear the desired attributes, and then click OK twice. (The Advanced button does not appear on drives formatted with a FAT file system.) If you do need to configure security parameters at the folder level, use the Security tab in the My Documents Properties sheet.

Effect on Text

Smooth Glass Type

Slow Shutter Text Effect

Placing Multiple Images Inside Text

Stylish Text

Six Easy Steps to Make Your Computer Fast

Six Easy Steps to Make Your Computer Fast Again

One of the more common questions we receive is in regards to Windows based computers starting to run slowly. This will eventually happen to all windows machines and is simply in the nature of windows. The long term problem is that the windows registry (the database that underlies windows and controls everything from passwords to last window locations) simply gets clogged from installing and uninstalling software. Windows Professionals recommend that if a machine is serving a role that it is supposed to remain 'speedy' in that you reformat the machine every 6-12 months and put a new Windows install on it. Obviously not all of us have the time to do this so I will outline a few things that can be done short of formatting that will still significantly increase system performance.
1. Install Microsoft Anti-Spyware
Microsoft AntiSpyWare is one of the better anti-spyware programs on the market and is completely free. Spyware can be installed via legitimate software that you intended on installing or by simply browsing to a web site that will execute malicious code. Internet Explorer is notoriously susceptible to spy ware installing itself via routine web browsing and because of this (and a number of other reasons) US-CERT (the governmental agency in charge of issuing software security announcements) recommends that no one run Internet Explorer at all. FireFox is an excellent alternative and should import all of your IE favorites during the install.

2. Make sure your virus software is up to date and run and complete system scan.
Virii is a common performance thief on windows based computers. They hog resources either by design or wile executing a payload and harvesting address books, files on your hard drive or propagating itself.

3. Look at your sysTray.
The systray is the area next to the clock in the lower right hand corner of your screen. Each icon you see their is running in memory. I recommend right clicking on each icon that you do not need and seeing if there is way to permanently disable the item. Some items will have a 'disable' option, however it will only disable it for that session. Upon logging out and back in you will see the icon again. With items like this you will need to find a 'preferences' or 'configuration' option. If none seems to be available I would go into the application associated with it and check in its preferences.

4. Startup Items
Open windows explorer (windows hot key + e on your keyboard) and browse to 'c:\documents and settings\YOURUSERNAME\startmenu\startp" and delete any icons that you do not running when you log in. You will also want to do this in the 'c:\documents and settings\all users\startmenu\startp" directory after having logged in as administrator.

5. Run a scandisk.
By going to My Computer, and right clicking on your C drive you will be shown a dialog box with a number of tabs. Go to the 'Tools' tab and start a scan disk. This will check your drive for file system errors and correct them. In some cases windows will need exclusive rights to the hard drive and say that it will be run during the next reboot. Tell it ok and then reboot your machine.

6. Run a defrag.
After the machine returns from the scan disk in the same area run a defrag or 'disk defragmentation'. This will physically align all of your files in a the proper order on your hard drive. This will create less drive-seek time when running programs or loading files. This task is best performed monthly.

If you have performed all of these steps, rebooted your machine and are still unsatisfied with the performance you may want to consider backing up your files, locating all of your programs install media and licenses and reformat your machine and reinstall windows. For most faculty, staff and lab machines this will be done by myself or another technician.

Speed Up SATA Hard Drives In Window Vista

Speed Up SATA Hard Drives & USB Drives In Windows Vista

Window Vista has built in support for SATA and external drives, but they seem to be slow because the advanced write cache features aren’t automatically activated. With just few steps you can enable them and get a much faster response.

First you need to go to the Device Manager which you can go directly by just typing device in the start menu search box or just type in devmgmt.msc in command line.

Now open the Disk drives section and right click on your hard drive. Now click on the Policies tab and you’ll find this dialog box:



Now click the checkbox for Enable advanced performance, and you are done.



Write caching isn’t enabled by default as removing devices directly without using the “Safely remove removable device”may lose your data, so be cautious when enabling this options. But enabling this option also when speeding up performance significantly when writing to the disk.



Now select the external drive and double click it to open up the properties screen. Then
just change the setting to “Optimize for performance” and hit OK to continue. You’ll have to reboot for all the settings to take effect. Next time you boot into Windows Vista you’ll see faster bootup times and better disk writing performance.

How to remove a virus

Steps to help remove a virus:
1. Visit the Protect Your PC site and install the latest updates.

2. If you currently use antivirus software, visit the manufacturer's Web site, update it, and then perform a thorough scan of your system. If you don't currently use antivirus software, subscribe to a service and scan your system immediately.

3. Download, install, and run the Malicious Software Removal Tool (for Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 2000 users). Note that this tool does not prevent viruses from infecting your system; it only helps to remove existing viruses.

Antivirus software & firewall protection:
Computer Associates - 12 month free trial

F-Secure - 6 month free trial

McAfee Antivirus / Firewall - 90 day free trial

Panda Software - 90 day free trial

Symantec (Norton) - 90 day free trial

Trend Micro - 90 day free trial

Antispyware:
Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware - free

Ad-Aware - free

What is a computer virus?

What is a computer virus?
Computer viruses are software programs deliberately designed to interfere with computer operation, record, corrupt, or delete data, or spread themselves to other computers and throughout the Internet, often slowing things down and causing other problems in the process.

Just as human viruses range in severity from the 24-hour flu to the Ebola virus, computer viruses range from the mildly annoying to the downright destructive, and come in new and different forms. The good news is that with an ounce of prevention and a little knowledge, you are less likely to fall victim to viruses and you can diminish their impact.

How do viruses work?
Basic viruses typically require unwary computer users to inadvertently share or send them. Some viruses that are more sophisticated, such as worms, can replicate and send themselves automatically to other computers by controlling other software programs, such as an e-mail sharing application. Certain viruses, called Trojans (named after the fabled Trojan horse), can falsely appear as a beneficial program to coax users into downloading them. Some Trojans can even provide expected results while quietly damaging your system or other networked computers at the same time.

Although it's good to be aware of these different types of viruses and how they work, what is most important is that you keep your computer current with the latest updates and antivirus tools, stay current about recent threats, and that you follow a few basic rules when surfing the Internet, downloading files, and opening attachments. Once a virus is on your computer, its type or the method it used to get there is not as critical as removing it and preventing further infection.

Nothing can guarantee the security of your computer 100 percent. However, you can continue to improve your computer's security and decrease the possibility of infection by keeping your system up-to-date, maintaining a current antivirus software subscription, and following a few best practices.

Steps to help avoid viruses:
1. Visit Microsoft Update and turn on Automatic Updates.

Note: If you've installed Office 2003 or Office XP, Automatic Updates will also update your Office programs. If you have an earlier version of Office, use Office Update.

2. Use an Internet firewall (Note: Windows XP with SP2 has a firewall already built-in and active).

3. Subscribe to industry standard antivirus software and keep it current.

4. Never open an e-mail attachment from someone you don't know.

5. Avoid opening an e-mail attachment from someone you know, unless you know exactly what the attachment is. The sender may be unaware that it contains a virus.

How do I know if a virus has infected my computer?
After you open and run an infected program or attachment on your computer, you might not realize that you've introduced a virus until you notice something isn't quite right.

Here are a few primary indicators that your system might be infected:
• Runs consistently slower than normal

• Stops responding or locks up often

• Crashes and restarts every few minutes

• Restarts on its own and then fails to run normally

• Applications don't work properly

• Disks or disk drives are inaccessible

• Printing doesn't work correctly

• You see unusual error messages

• You see distorted menus and dialog boxes

These are common signs of infection—but they could also indicate hardware or software problems that have nothing to do with a virus. The bottom line is that unless you install industry standard, up-to-date antivirus software on your computer, there is no way to be certain if your computer is infected with a virus or not.

Eery-Eye Photo Manipulation

Eery-Eye Photo Manipulation

In this Photoshop tutorial I will be walking you through the making of an interesting art piece, “The Eye, the Key of the Soul.”

In this tutorial we will use the burn tool, dodge tool, brushes, layer modes and more to add an interesting effect to an otherwise regular stock photo.

.

1.

Open up the stock photo you’ve chosen to be working with for this tutorial. Duplicate it once (just in case!) Find and get out the Burn Tool, change the range/mode for it to ‘midtones’ and set the opacity to something light-medium.

Using the burn tool now, pass in turn of the pupil of the eye and in turn of the eye. Now get out the Dodge Tool and set the mode to midtones again. Use the dodge tool to lighten up the pupil and also among where you used the burn tool to darken.

2.

Again using the dodge tool, make some ‘rays’ just outside of the iris, and lighten up any other areas you think may need it.

3.

Now use Lighting Effects (filter > render > lighting effects) to add an interesting lighting effect to the overall photo, you may want to mess around with the colors for the lighting effects filter. Try not to over-saturate the photo though on this step, if your lighting effects affect it too much, go to edit > fade lighting effects and put it at around 50%.

4.

Now it’s time to recolor the center of the eye. Do this by making a new layer (layer > new > layer) and brush a little bit inside of the eye with a soft brush, using the color of your choice (orange). After you’ve made your little bit of brushing inside of the eye, change the layer mode to Color and lower the opacity to around 50-60%.

5.

Using the dodge and burn tools again, add more light/darkness to the pupil to give it a stronger effect.

6.

To add more feeling to the photo, go to layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map and made a black & white gradient map. Change the layer mode for this layer to Luminosity and leave the opacity in tact. Repeat step 4 with the eye color part, you may want to use a lower opacity though, and a different color for the brush.

7.

A little more dodge & burn tool here, remember to mess with the ‘range’ and opacities for the brushes as well, get creative.

I also create another pupil-color layer, brushed inside of it it with a yellow-orange, changed the layer mode to Linear Dodge and lowered the fill to 10%.

8.

To finish off, apply a Selective Color adjustment layer (layer > new adjustment layer > selection color) and use the settings that you find look best. Again, in finishing, apply lighting effects again, but this time lower the opacity afterwards to around 35%.

High-Key B&W Portrait Effect

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Our tutorial this time will show you how you can achieve high-key effect in a Black and White portrait with only 4 easy steps in photoshop.

Here are our before and after portraits..

Step 1.) Desaturate your portrait with image>adjustment>desaturate or simply by pressing shift+ctrl+u

Step 2.) Apply image adjustment curve to your portrait

Step 3.) Duplicate the layer, and add gaussian blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), change the layer blend mode to overlay

Step 4.) Add layer mask, Set your foreground color to black, and start brushing over the eyes, nose, and lips. You might want to use the burn tool to burn the background layer around the eyes, nose, and lips.

Making Own Poster

lways wanted to play Al Pacino in the classic hitmovie "Scarface"? Well here's your chance to at least have your photo on the movieposter!

We will replicate the black and white poster, with this image as a rough sample (There must be better images of this poster available, but this one will do for now..)

Take a good photo of yourself and open it in photoshop.

Remove the background by using either the Polygonal or Magnetic Lasso Tool.

Once done we will convert your image to pure black and white. Now I am sure there are easier ways to do this, but I used the Cutout effect, to have more control.

Filter -> Artistic -> Cutout

Set the number of levels to 2, keeping the other 2 settings in their original position, press OK

Now your image has a vectorized look, but needs to be set to black and white. I used the magic wand tool to do this piece by piece, to avoid big black areas, with no detail whatsoever. Select the magic wand tool (press W) and set the tolerance at the top to a level around 50.

Hit D and then X to set the background colour to black. (Hit X again to set it to white again).

Start selecting areas and give them a colour to your liking. In general this goes pretty quick, especially if you untick Contiguous at the top. (This means that areas with the same colour will be selected, they dont have to be connected).

Once done you should have a black and white picture of yourself! If you're image looks to the left, go to Image -> Rotate Canvas -> Flip canvas horizontally to make it look to the right! This will look better in the end. If your image just stares at you, thats fine as well

Now, we will add the black partial background. Add a new layer and select the Polygonal lasso tool. Make a selection that covers the left part of the image, and spare some of the details of the image. so that means you will go down via the left side of the image, as you can see below:



Easy huh?! Now all thats left is the text and we're done! As you can see I have some blank space on my canvas available. If you have a shortage of space, simply increase the canvas size!

Image -> Canvas size

My best guess was Times New Roman for the font, ofcourse you may experiment with this yourself, but if you stretch it a little it comes pretty close I think.

First we'll start with the red text.

Type "AL PACINO SCARFACE". Select a font size so that it covers the width of your screen!

My settings:



Al pacino should be in the black part of the image, scarface in the right. Add some spaces when necessary.

On the left side there will appear the following text. Copy it to save yourself some typing

CODE

He was
Tony Montana.

The world
will remember
him by another
name

...SCARFACE

With the following settings:



At the total bottom of the original poster, you can also see the text:

CODE

He loved the American Dream.
With a vengeance.

Add it if you have the space available, I didnt, so I just left it out. Use a smaller font size, but set it to bold.

On the right, there will be room for the movie credits, again, copy + paste:

CODE

A MARTIN BREGMAN
PRODUCTION
A BRIAN DE PALMA
FILM
AL PACINO "SCARFACE"
SCREENPLAY BY
OLIVER STONE
MUSIC BY
GIORGIO MORODER
DIRECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY
JOHN A. ALONZO
A.H.C.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
LOUIS A. STROLLER
PRODUCED BY
MARTIN BREGMAN
DIRECTED BY
BRIAN DE PALMA

Set it to align-right.

Use these settings:

for the names (only the name itself): font size: 27pt, vertically scale 125%
for the 'a' in front of the name: font size: 9pt, vertically scale 125%
for the 'E' in 'A BRIAN DE PALMA': font size: 22pt, vertically scale 125% (twice)
for the remaining text: font size: 9pt, vertically scale 100%

you should have an end result close to this: