Enable NTFS on your Flash Drive

If you have ever wanted to copy a large file onto your flash drive (nowadays, most flash drives are over 4GB), you will need to enable the file system to be NTFS, if you plan to use this flash drive on Windows Computers. By default when you format the flash drive, you will only see the option as FAT32 and exFAT.

To enable the NTFS option in format, you will have to change a property of the Flash drive. Follow the steps below -

1. Go to your device manager, in Windows XP, right click on My Computer and choose Manage.
2. Click on device manager -> Choose Disk Drives -> Right click on the drive that corresponds to your flash drive and choose properties.
3. Go to the Policies Tab, and choose the option "Optimize for Performance", by default it will be "Optimize for quick removal".
4. Click OK and close out the Computer management window.
5. Now right click on your Flash drive letter in My Computer and choose format, now under the File System, you will see the NTFS option. Choose NTFS and format, this will convert your flash drive to NTFS and you're good to go.

Outlook stuck when mouse moves over the Printer icon

When the mouse moves over the Printer icon in Outlook while composing/replying to an email, outlook hangs and will not allow you to close or minimize the email or go back to the main window. This is because the tooltip associated with the Printer icon tries to see what the default printer is, and can cause it to hang if it's a network printer. You can turn off tooltips -

A permanent resolution for this behavior is to disable ToolTips for buttons. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Customize.
2. On the Options tab, click to clear the Show ScreenTips on Toolbars check box.
3. Click Close.

This is courtesy of microsoft.com documented at -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245635

Tab Grouping in Firefox

If you are like me and find that you are finding it hard to get used to Firefox grouping child tabs opened from their parent tabs next to the parent (opening up a tab in the background next to the tab you are currently browsing) and want it to go back to the old way of opening the new tab at the end of the list of tabs opened, follow the steps below to get that method back

1. Type "about:config" in the Firefox address bar. You'll get a warning that you are about to void your warranty. Just click the "I'll be careful, I promise" button, and you'll see a list of all the browser settings that can be changed.

2. In the text box labeled "Filter:", type "tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent"; you should see just one entry below. In the column marked "Value," double-click on the word "true" to change it to "false."

That's it, close that tab and you're done.

Enable Hibernate Option in Windows XP "Turn Off Computer" Menu

If you want the Hibernate option to appear in the Turn off computer dialog (right now there will be only 3 options if your power settings are setup properly, standby, turn off, and restart), and want the 4th button to be always visible, instead of having to press the shift key when the dialog box appears to cause standby to change to hibernate, you can follow the steps below. Please make sure that you have Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher installed for this to work. Otherwise please read the courtesy link at the bottom.

To cause the Hibernate button to appear when you click Turn Off Computer, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
3. If you do not have a System sub menu, right-click Windows, point to New, and then click Key. otherwise skip to step 5.
4. In the New Key #1 box, type System, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click System, point to New, and then click Key.
6. In the New Key #1 box, type Shutdown, and then press ENTER.
7. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
8. In the New Value # 1 box, type ShowHibernateButton, and then press ENTER.
9. Right-click ShowHibernateButton, and then click Modify.
10. In the Value data box, type 1, leave the default Hexadecimal option selected, and then click OK.
11. Quit Registry Editor.

Courtesy of http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;893056

Wierd Dating Websites popping up on the sidewalk

Well, I've noticed these strange signs popping up all over the city in Gaithersburg, MD and now Springfield, VA as well. If you go to these sites, you are presented with the same webpage to register and that you will be contacted shortly as a each person is subjected to some kind of verification.

Some of the signs that I've noticed are on the stuck in the ground on two poles on a white background and black lettering, which doesn't give much information other than "Single? - GaithersburgDating.ORG". If you search for such sites on the internet, there is no information on the sites at all. So I did a little research and found out that these sites are actually owned by a much bigger organization called "Together Dating Service", and you can easily google and find enough information about. After looking a little more into the "Together Dating Service", I found that some people have seen some more signs popping up in their communities. Some of the sites I collected are -

1. GaithersburgDating.org
2. WestSpringfieldSingles.org
3. reisterstownsingles.org
4. cockeysvillesingles.org
... the list goes on.

If you do a whois search on those domains, you will see that they are all registered to Nu Star solutions.

Well, thought I'd share with the people who are looking at these signs and searching for information, but can't find any.

Getting subtitles to work with your saved movies

Subtitle Files tend to consist of 2 files, an IDX and .srt/.sub

Without either one of these, it may or may not allow your media player to run its subtitles. Here's an Example:

In order for VLC Media Player to automatically load your subtitles, ensure that the movie name, and subtitle names are exactly the same, as shown below:

Movie name: ramayan.avi
Subtitle files: ramayan.idx ramayan.sub

Ensure all 3 files are in the same directory.

This method works for .avi, .mpeg, etc files, but are different to DVD files.

Stop Saving Recent Document in Windows XP

The Recent Documents folder on the Windows XP Start menu displays a list of files and documents that you most recently used. But if you are not using this feature, it is best to disable it since it will reduce the time it takes to boot Windows plus when you are sharing the computer, you won't leave any tracks behind.

Here's how to disable the recent documents history:

1. Type regedit in the Start/Run window.

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.

3. Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value of NoRecentDocsHistory by double clicking.

4. Set the Data Value to 1. Save the value and close the registry editor.

The next time you start Windows, your recent documents folder would remain empty and won't track your open documents.


Courtesy of: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/08/disable-recent-documents-history-to.html