[Tip] Remove Username From Windows 7 Start Menu

User name in the start menu

Windows users might be knowing well that the Start Menu in Windows shows a username of the user currently logged on to the computer, now matter how many user accounts your Windows has. For some reasons, if you want to remain anonymous by removing your username from the Start Menu, here is the step-by-step guide of what you need to do if you are using either Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

Steps:

1. Right click on the taskbar and select “Properties”.

Taskbar right click menu

2.Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” window opens up. Go to the “Start Menu” tab in the window. Click on the “Customize” button.

Taskbar and start menu properties

3. Another window “Customize Start Menu” opens up. Scroll the window down until you see “Personal folder” section. By default, “Display as a link” option would be selected. Now as you want to remove your username from the Start Menu, select the last option “Don’t display this item”, Click OK to save the settings.

Customize start menu

4. Click on the Apply button on the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties and click “OK” to close the window. Now your username will be delisted from the Start Menu as shown here:

No username on the start menu

You are done. Just check “Display as a link” whenever you want to revert back to the default settings to show your user account name back on the Start Menu.

[Tip] Change Default Download Location In IE9

IE9 downloads

As promised earlier, we have come up with another tip for the new Internet Explorer 9 users. Internet Explorer 9 (as it is only compatible on Windows 7 and Vista) by default stores the files downloaded to %windir%/Users/Username/Downloads (C: > Users> Username> Downloads is the most common path). But you might want to keep all the downloads through Internet Explorer to a different folder other than the default “Downloads” folder. Follow the steps given below to get this done:

1. Open Internet Explorer 9 and hit Ctrl + J to launch the “View Downloads” window. Alternatively, you can open the same via Alt > Tools > View Downloads from the Tools menu.

Tools menu options in IE9

2. In the View Downloads window, click on “Options”.

View Downloads in IE9

3. In the “Download Options“ window, change the default folder by browsing and selecting a custom folder. Click OK once you have chosen the desired folder.

Download options in IE9

Select download folder for IE9

4. Click OK and close the “Download Options” window and “View Download” window.

[How To] Clean Up Context Menu In Internet Explorer

IE context menu mess up

We have earlier covered how to clean up unwanted items in context menu in Windows Explorer and for Firefox. Now in this tutorial let me take you through the process of removing items from right click context menu in Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer is by far the most widely used browser in the world. And the IE lovers worldwide are excited by the release of new beta version of IE9. So we thought this might be the right time to post some tips on tweaking Internet Explorer.

Context menu in Internet Explorer consists of two sections:

1) Accelerators (only for IE8 & IE9)

2) Menu extensions

1) Accelerators:

Accelerators are webpage specific and they will have their own action set up based on the webpage data. These have become a part of IE since the release of Internet Explorer 8. Some examples for Accelerators in IE8 & IE9:

  • Blog with Blogger
  • Email with Windows Live
  • Define with Google Dictionary
  • Translate with Windows Live

Accelerators in Internet Explorer

If you don’t use these Accelerators much, follow the steps outlined below to disable them:

1. Go to Tool > Select Manage Add-ons

Tools menu in Internet Explorer

2. Under the “Add-on Types”, click on Accelerators tab on the left hand side pane. You will the full list of Accelerators available.

3. Right click on the Accelerator that you want to disable and choose “Disable”.

disable accelerator in IE

You may also want to disable or remove other unneeded toolbars and add-ons by clicking on “Toolbars and Extensions”.

2) Menu Extensions:

Menu extensions are stored in the Windows registry and these are present in all versions of Internet Explorer, not just IE8 & IE9.

Examples for Menu Extensions many include:

  • Download with IDM
  • Send to OneNote
  • Send page to Bluetooth Device..

To disable unnecessary Menu Extensions, follow these steps:

1. Press Start button + R to open the run command bar. Type “regedit” and press OK.

regedit run command

2. Navigate to the following path in the registry editor:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER> Software> Microsoft> Internet Explorer> MenuExt

HKCU in regedit

HKCU expanded in regedit

3. Right click on MenuExt folder and choose “Export” and save a copy as the backup, to be on the safe side in case something goes wrong.

MenuExt export

4. Collapse the “MenuExt” folder and start deleting the items that you don’t need:

MenuExt items

5. Close the registry editor and restart the Internet Explorer to see the changes.

That is it. If you wonder “why do I need to mess up with registry editor? Isn’t there any freeware available?” ; Yes, there’s a freeware (actually IE add-on) called ToolbarCop which will remove the unnecessary items from the IE context menu with a few clicks.

[Download] VLC Media Player For iPad

VLC player for iPad

Do you own an iPad ? Love watching movies on your iPad? iPad is a great device to watch movies. But the problem till now was that Apple has limited iPad to play only MP4 files and its own Quick Time format files. If you want to watch any movie which is not either MP4 or a Quick Time files, you need to go through the long and cumbersome conversion process. This is true for the popular DivX and AVI format files too. When all the upcoming devices are coming up with a support to play the files in this format, Apple’s stubbornness to stick to those two file formats has often been criticized. But thanks to Video LAN team, they have worked hard to make an iPad app which enables the users to play videos in almost-all formats.

VLC media player iPad screenshot

With the VLC Media player app, iPad users can play those popular AVI or DivX format files without any problems but some minor issues may arise if you choose to play formats like Real media files or MKV files etc.

Download VLC Media Player App from iTunes

[Tip] Disable “This device can perform faster” Message In Windows 7

This device can perform faster

Sometimes when you insert an older flash drive or any other drive into USB port of your PC, a message may appear saying “This device can perform faster”. This message appears because there are two USB standards namely USB 1.1 and USB 2.0, the later one being the standard that supports high speed performance with USB devices.

But it may seem annoying when this notifications pops up each and every time you connect the flash drive to the USB port. If you don’t want to see this message anymore, follow these steps below to completely disable this notification:

For Windows XP Users:

device_can_perform_faster_xp

1. When you see the balloon message, just click on it and it will open a new window:

USB host controller properties

Alternatively, you can open the same window in a different way. First right click on My Computer > Select Manage > and Computer Management window will open up:

computer management in windows xp

right click on the USB device that is connected and click “Properties”, you will still land on the same window. But by this way, you can even disable settings for the other USB ports as well.

2. Now check against “Don’t tell me about USB errors” and click OK.

You will no longer see the remainder balloon when you connect this device to the USB port

For Windows 7 and Windows Vista Users:

When it comes to Windows 7, the newest Windows OS has got better option than disabling USB errors. In Windows 7, you can choose not to notify even if the device attached to the USB port can perform better.

Click on the balloon message, it will show a window listing all available USB 2.0 ports. Uncheck “Tell me if  my device can perform faster” option at the bottom and click Close.

This device can perform faster options in Windows 7

Alternate method: You can disable this option for other USB ports also via Device Manager > Universal Bus Controllers,

Device Manager and USB controllers

right click on the USB port and select properties.

Now go to Advanced in the properties window. Uncheck against “Tell me if my device can perform faster” option and click OK.

USB_host_controller_properties_win7

From now on, you won’t see the balloon notification message when you connect a USB drive into your computer.

[How To] Fix Missing “Show Hidden Files And Folders” Option In Windows 7

Windows comes with an option to either disable or enable the hidden files and folders. This option can be usually found via Windows Explorer > Organize > Folder and search options as shown here:

Folder and search options in windows 7

Folder options windows 7

Under the View tab, you must see two options:

  • Don’t show hidden files, folders or drives
  • Show hidden files, folders and drives

Hidden files and folders items

But when your computer is infected by a virus or malware, it can change your default settings to not show hidden files and folders and more often it can even remove the “Show hidden files, folder and drives” option completely, as you can see in this screenshot:

Show hidden folders missing

Even if you scan your computer with any antivirus program and remove the virus, these settings will not be reverted back to default. Hence you must enable them manually. We had previously posted solution to similar problem but it was for showing hidden files and folders in virus affected system in case of Windows XP.

And now let me guide you on how to enable this missing option in your Windows 7 (or even in Windows Vista) folder options.

1. Press “Stat button + R” to open the run command tool.

2. Type “regedit” in the text filed and press enter to open the registry editor.

Regedit from run command

3. Follow the following path and carefully navigate to the same in the registry editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows> CurrentVersion> Explorer> Advanced> Folder> Hidden

4. In the right hand side, look for a key with name “Type”. It should have a vale “group” under data column. If it doesn’t show this value, then follow:

registry editor

5. Right click on the key Type and chose modify.

Modify regedit

And change the value data to “group”. If the key “Type” doesn’t exist at all, just right click on right hand side pane and select New > String Value and enter the data value as group.

Registry editor vaules

Now open Task Manager (right click on taskbar and choose Task manager), go to processes tab, find explorer.exe, right click on it and choose “End Process”. Don’t get frightened when you see all the windows explorer windows getting closed leaving you with just the windows of the opened programs.

Just go to File > New Task (Run..) from the Task Manager and enter “explorer” in the filed and click OK, Windows Explorer will be back.

Now go back to the folder options and the “show hidden folder..” option should be visible again.

[Download] Lock Folders In Windows 7 With Secure Folder

Lock folder

Folder lock softwares are one of the most sought -after programs for many computer users to keep their personal folders safe and secure by adding a password protection to the folders. Many of my friends still keep asking me whether any such free folder lock software available on the internet. Of course there are too many available already, but the one I’m going to talk here about is a freeware called “Secure Folder” that works on Windows computers including Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Setting up a password for any folder is pretty much easy and straightforward With Secure Folder. Download the installer from the links added below this post and install it on your Windows PC.

When you launch the application for the first time, it’ll ask you to set a password for the program.

Set password for Secure Folder

Once you have done that, it’ll add a quick item to the right click context menu for any folder.

Lock/Unlock Menu With Secure Folder

You can also add folders to the Secure Folder program window and click “Lock” button to lock the folder.

Secure folder program

When you lock any folder, you need to right click on it and select “[Lock/unlock] with secure folder”. and then enter the program password that you had entered during the setup.

[Tip] Find Facebook Last Login Time & Location Details

facebook logo

Facebook is undoubtedly the no#1 fastest growing websites in the world and no wonder it has made to the top 3 websites in terms of number of daily visits worldwide. It has evolved as such a nice platform for social networking, connecting with friends, sharing with friends and with those wonderful apps, the ease of using the site is just growing in a phenomenal manner. Popularity always brings envies too. The result: increasing number of phishing attacks on Facebook to get your login details. The only way you can save your account from being exploited is to never share Facebook account details on any where else. Even if you does this regularly, you would still be doubtful if someone else finds your login details without your knowledge and gain access to your profile. The only way you can sense a suspicious activity on your account is to monitor your account to see if there’s an unauthorised access from any where and from any device which might not have used by you.  Here’s the tutorial on how to check your last login time and location on Facebook.

Find last accessed time & location of Facebook account:

1. Login to Facebook and click on “Account” dropdown menu on the top right corner of your screen. Click on “Account Settings”.

Facebook account settings

2. You will be taken to the Facebook “My account” page, where you will a number of tabs, each account for settings for different sections of Facebook. Click on Settings tab.

Facebook my account

3. Find the “Account Security tab “under settings, you will have the account activity details listed under “Most Recent Activity

Facebook most recent acitvity

You can find the last accessed time, location and the device from where your account has been accessed. You can even enable SMS or email notifications whenever your account is accessed from a new computer or mobile device, just select “On” radio button under “Login Notifications” and click Save button.

You might also want to read how to disable Facebook notification emails.

[Download] Windows 7 Hotfix Update KB2028560

kb2028560 update

Microsoft has released an important hotfix update KB2028560 for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 server. This particular update is intended to provide performance improvements for the graphics platform (i.e to improve the performance of DirectX 11 in Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2). This update also addresses the issue with Windows Live products when you have installed the Windows Internet Explorer 9 beta or preview build version on your computer. Instead of uninstalling IE9 when you face issues with Live products, I suggest you to download and install this hotfix and it should solve the issue for you. In fact Microsoft has also said that this update KB2028560 must be installed in order to support features in “upcoming release of an IE 9 platform preview build”.

Although the update is supposed to be an update for DirectX 11, it only includes files that are related to DirectX 10.1, DirectWrite and Direct2D. The gamers who have installed this update have reported no major improvements in DirectX 11 though they seem to have noticed a good fps increase in DirectX10 or DirectX10.1 based games.

KB2028560 Download Link:

Windows 7 (Windows6.1-KB2028560-v2-x86.msu- 1.4 MB) – Validation required

[Tip] Remove Unnecessary Items In Firefox Right-Click Context Menu

Firefox context menu

One main reason for Mozilla Firefox to get popularity among the internet audience is the comfort ability of adding our favorite add-ons from a host of add-ons available at Mozilla add-ons gallery. But sometimes when you install an add-on, they also add some items to your context menu in Firefox. When you go on installing more add-ons, the number of context menu (which appears when you right-click on any webpage inside the browser) items will become so huge that you can’t even spot the correct menu item at the first sight.

Wouldn’t it be good if we have a control over this context menu items and customize it and remove the unnecessary items from the context menu ? You can actually do it for yourself in two ways. The first and easy option would be to grab an add-on that lets you manage your context menu items. The second way of working around this needs a more of your effort and time. I’m here briefing both the methods, but I strongly suggest you to use the first method, second method is only for those enthusiasts out there who don’t like simple solutions Smile

Method-1:

1. Download Menu Editor Firefox add-on (currently works with Firefox 2 &3) , click “Add to Firefox” and allow it to be installed on your Firefox and restart the browser.

Add to firefox

2. Hit Ctrl + Shift + S button to open the Menu Editor options dialog.

Menu editor options

3. Change the items in the menu editor options as you wish (you can click “Hide” button to remove it from the context menu). Alternatively you can rearrange the items to change their order. You can make use of this to Chrome-like options menu for context menu. In Chrome as you know, “Open link in new tab” comes ahead of “Open link in new window” option (reverse in case  of Firefox). You can use this add-on to change your Firefox context menu look similar to that of Chrome and other browsers.

Firefox new tab optionsFirefox new tab options after using addon

4. Click Apply to apply the changes and click OK to close the dialog box.

You will see the changes once you restart your Firefox.

Method-2:

1. Press Start button + R to open “Run” command window and key in %Appdata% in the field and press Enter.

Run command

2. A new window will open containing a lot of folders. Navigate to Mozilla > Firefox > Profiles > <default profile folder> > chrome folder.

userChrome.css examples

3. Create a new file called userChrome.css (notice the uppercase ‘C’)inside the chrome folder.

userChrome.css file

4. Open the file userChrome.css in any text editor and add the following lines to it:

#id1, #id2 { display:none !important; }

5. Replace each of the identifiers #id1, #id2,.. with one of the selectors from this Firefox context menus list.

For instance, if you want to disable “View Page Source” and “View Page Info” items from your context menu, you should use the following code:

#context-viewsource,
#context-sep-viewinfo {
  display: none !important;
}

Similarly if you want to remove “Set As Wallpaper…” and “Set as Desktop Background…” menu item in the context menu, that appears when you hover on any image on a webpage, you should use the following code:

#context-setWallpaper,
#context-setDesktopBackground {
  display: none !important;
}

To remove the “Open Link in New Window” menu item, use:

#context-openlink {
  display: none !important;
}

And you can use your custom based on the selectors from the Firefox context menus list.

If something goes wrong just close the browser and delete the userChrome.css file from the chrome folder.