Key Finder Error 1314: A Required Privilege is not held

If you get the error Error 1314: A Required Privilege is not held when using a key finder to locate your lost Windows Key off a USB Windows hard drive using the "Load Hive from a windows folder" or similar, this just means that you have to start the program with "Run as administrator" instead of the normal mode. 

To do this, right click on your key finder program and right click and say "Run as administrator". Confirm the confirmation dialog and then proceed. Now the key finder should be able to read the windows folder without any issues.

Tabs below the address bar in Firefox 10 and above

If you found the new position of the address bar below the tab bar annoying (I believe they introduced this in Firefox 4 and above, but I'm not sure), you have the option of disabling it, so that it goes back to showing the address bar above the tab bar. Here are the steps to disable/enable it -

1. In the address tab, type "about:config"
2. Confirm the warning message that comes up (voids your warranty)
3. In the search bar type "browser.tabs.onTop"
4. Double click on the first result to change the option from true to false or vice-versa if you want to enable it.
5. Close that tab

You should see the changes effective immediately from this page itself.

Disable the new tab in Firefix 13 and above

Like me, if you found the new tab page which shows a list of most accessed pages in Firefix 13 (similar to Chrome) annoying, you have the option of disabling it, so that it goes back to displaying a blank page when you create a new tab. Here are the steps to disable/enable it -

1. In the address tab, type "about:config"
2. Confirm the warning message that comes up (voids your warranty)
3. In the search bar type "browser.newtabpage.enabled"
4. Double click on the first result to change the option from true to false
5. Close that tab

Open a new tab and verify that it is now a blank page. To revert the changes back, just change the property back to true.

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