Latest How-Tos
These are the last 40 featured how-to articles on How-To Geek. If you want to stay up to date, you should subscribe to the latest articles feed.
Exclusive Sneak Preview: Create a Custom Theme with Vista Style Builder
Have you ever been frustrated by a particular UI element in Vista that you just wished you could change? Sure, you can patch your system to allow custom themes, but there really aren't that many custom themes, and even less that are any good. Soon, there will be a better way.
Geek Humor: Add Odd Characters to the Windows Notification Area (Mysticgeek Blog)
There is really no point to this trick other than trick to amuse yourself and others. We are going to add in odd symbols or characters to the Window’s Notification Area on the Taskbar to mess with your co-workers.
How to Print to a PDF File on Windows Vista
I was printing off receipts from Newegg and other sites where I've purchased things from when the thought occurred to me: It would save a lot of paper if I could just print all of them to a PDF file instead, which I could then store in nicely organized folders instead of having paper copies everywhere. So how exactly do we print to a PDF in Vista?
Thursday's Pre-Holiday Lazy Links Roundup
Tomorrow is a holiday here in the US, and since I've been extremely busy lately I figured I'd make a quick list of some of the great content on some of my favorite blogs, mostly from our very own Mysticgeek.
Restore the "Search..." Item to the Folder Context Menu in Windows Vista SP1
One of the unwelcome changes that Microsoft introduced in Service Pack 1 was the removal of some of the easy ways to get to the Search screen: the start menu button and folder context menu item. Thankfully we can easily add the "Search..." item back to the context menu with a simple registry tweak.
Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Open Task Manager's "All Users" View in Windows Vista
Have you ever wondered how to open up Task Manager with the "All Users" view instead of just your own processes? One of our readers wrote in with this same question, so I'm writing it up for everybody.
Building a New Computer - Part 4: Installing Windows and Loading Drivers
Now that we've put the computer together and setup the BIOS options, we need to get down to business: Installing the operating system. For the purposes of this article we'll be focusing on Windows Vista, but we'll try and briefly cover XP as well.
Mysticgeek Blog: Hidden XP Utility - Driver Verifier
Earlier this week we covered the process of rolling back a device driver in XP. One step we can take to help verify the driver we download will work is to use a little known XP utility called Verifier.
Troubleshooting Problems with Firefox 3 Crashing or Hanging
With all the fanfare surrounding the release of Firefox 3 and the setting of a new world record for downloads, the fact that many people are having problems with Firefox instability seemed to get lost in the shuffle... so I decided to write up a list of troubleshooting methods that might help solve your problems.
Add Defragment to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive
After writing the article last week about how to add Disk Cleanup to the context menu for a drive, I received several requests for how to add another menu item for Defrag instead. With a simple registry hack we can do just that.
Stupid Geek Tricks: Open an Explorer Window from the Command Prompt's Current Directory
Have you ever done something on your computer without really thinking about it, but the person next to you has a surprised and confused look on their face? If so, then you might have performed a Stupid Geek Trick. Today we'll show how to open an Explorer window from the current command prompt directory.
Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Turn the Desktop Icons On or Off
After the article last week about creating a shortcut to quickly access the desktop folder, one of our readers asked for a shortcut or hotkey to simply hide or show the desktop icons. This seemed like a great idea, so I've come up with the best way to do exactly that.
Create a Keyboard Shortcut to Access Hidden Desktop Icons and Files
Most of us like me love to keep the icons and some files in the desktop for quick access but ironically I love a clean desktop too. But there is a simple tweak without any additional tool to get the best of both worlds, you can hide the desktop icons & files and create a custom keyboard shortcut to access those icons and files.
Make "Command Prompt Here" Always Display for Folders in Windows Vista
We've previously explained how you can open a command prompt by holding down the Shift key and right-clicking on a folder or the desktop... but how do you make that item show up without having to hold down the shift key?
Add Disk Cleanup to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive
Normally when you want to access the Disk Cleanup tool, you usually have to either find it through the start menu, or open up the drive properties window. Instead of going through all that, we can use a simple registry hack to add a menu item to the drive right-click menu.
Set the Speed Dial as the Opera Startup Page
Reader John wrote in today asking how to set Opera to open directly to the Speed Dial page... so after a bit of testing I figured it out, and am sharing with everybody else.
How-To Geek on Lifehacker: How to Make Windows Vista Less Annoying
In case you haven't already seen it, my first guest post over on Lifehacker went live today.
Create a Context Menu Item to Copy a Text File To the Clipboard in Windows Vista
If you are the type of person that likes to keep a lot of information stored in text-format files on your drive, you've probably encountered a scenario where you want to copy that information to the clipboard… so you open the file in notepad, select all, then copy to the clipboard. What if you could do it with a simple context menu item instead?
4 Ways to Make UAC Less Annoying on Windows Vista
The single biggest irritation in Windows Vista is the UAC (User Account Control) system, especially for people that do a lot of tweaking. When you are trying to make configuration changes, it seems like every couple of seconds you are hitting another UAC prompt. Sure, it's more secure... but what options do we have to make it less annoying?
Create Administrator Mode Shortcuts Without UAC Prompts in Windows Vista
One of the most talked about annoyances in Windows Vista are the UAC prompts that constantly pop up when you are trying to make system changes. It's especially irritating when you often need to run a particular tool that requires administrator mode in order to run. Thankfully there's a simple hack that you can do to create an administrator mode shortcut that doesn't prompt for UAC.
Disable All Notification Balloons in Windows Vista
If you find the popup notification balloons in the Windows Vista system tray to be too annoying, you might be interested to know that you can completely disable them. This would be an extreme option, of course… typically you can just turn them off in any offending applications, but if you want to disable them across the board, this is the solution.
Mysticgeek Blog: Exclusive Look Inside Vreel - Including Interview With Vreel Founder!
For those of you who are still in mourning over the loss of video site Stage6 you are in luck as Vreel.net is coming soon! Vreel is essentially the replacement site for Stage6.
Create a Context Menu Item to Copy a List of Files to the Clipboard in Windows Vista
If you've ever needed to create a list of files in a directory, you've likely used a command from the prompt to pipe the directory listing into a file… but what if you could simply right-click on or in any folder and copy a list of the files to the clipboard?
Allow Pings (ICMP Echo Request) Through Your Windows Vista Firewall
Have you ever noticed that with the Windows Vista Firewall enabled, you can't use ping from another computer to see if your Vista computer is alive? Sure, you could take the drastic step of disabling the firewall for testing purposes, but the simple solution is to just allow ICMP requests through the firewall.
Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Clear the Clipboard in Windows Vista
Have you ever copied something to the clipboard that you don't want to leave there in case somebody else is going to use your computer? Sure, you can copy something else to the clipboard real quick, but can't you just make a shortcut or hotkey to clear it?
Disable Deletion of the Recycle Bin in Windows Vista
One of the changes in Windows Vista was the easy way to remove the Recycle Bin from the desktop (simply right-click and delete)... unfortunately this sparked a new problem where unwitting users started deleting the Recycle Bin instead of Emptying it and were unable to figure out how to restore it.
Building a New Computer - Part 3: Setting it Up
So you've picked out the parts you want, and put the computer together... so now we need to power it on and start setting things up. Sure, you could drop your install cd in the drive, but you'll have better luck if you check a few BIOS settings and run some tests first, both of which we'll cover here.
Mysticgeek Blog: Create Appealing Charts In Excel 2007
Creating a professional looking chart for Excel presentations is extremely easy in Excel 2007. Making charts is a more interesting way to present data than just going through the rows and columns on a spreadsheet.
Oops! Sorry About the Feed Errors
If your RSS reader suddenly got bombarded with posts from 2006 about Ubuntu, you might have assumed that we had invented a time machine and teleported you backwards in time... but that was not the case. Turns out the latest community build of MySQL (the database server we use) is not compatible with older versions of WordPress (the software used for the site).
Create a Shortcut Icon or Hotkey to Turn Windows Vista Firewall On or Off
When you are troubleshooting network problems, one of the first things to do is disable the built-in Windows Firewall... but there are just way too many steps required to the firewall on and off. Can't we make a simple shortcut icon instead?
Stupid Geek Tricks: Open a Command Prompt From the Desktop Right-Click Menu
If you don't already have a quick launch icon or a hotkey set to open a command prompt, there's really quick trick that you can do on any Windows Vista computer to open up a command prompt without having to navigate the menu.
Stupid Geek Tricks: Figure Out HTML Color Codes from Decimal RGB Colors (Like MS Paint Uses)
If you have ever needed to get an HTML color code from an application that only has the Windows color picker, you might have wondered how to convert that over to an HTML color code. Sure, you can use a color picker application, but there's also a simple way to do it without any additional software.
Keyboard Ninja: Using the Instant Search Shortcut Keys in Microsoft Outlook 2007
If you are using Microsoft Outlook as your email client, you've likely already used the instant search box... but using it can be even more "instant" if you learn how to use a couple of shortcut keys, instead of having to resort to the mouse every time.
Disable Ctrl+Alt+Backspace from Restarting X Windows on Linux
If you've used Linux for any amount of time, you're already familiar with the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace shortcut key combination that restarts X Windows immediately... but have you ever wondered if there is a way to disable that behavior?
Manually Remove Skype Extension from Firefox
If you accidentally checked the wrong box while installing Skype, you now are the proud recipient of an extension in Firefox that you can't uninstall. Sure, you can disable it... but what about uninstalling it?
Prevent Outlook with Gmail IMAP from Showing Duplicate Tasks in the To-Do Bar
If you are using Outlook with Gmail over IMAP, you might have noticed a really annoying problem: if you flag an email in Outlook, or use the Star feature in Gmail, you'll often end up with duplicate items in the To-Do bar.
Get Rid of the Unread Spam Message Count in Gmail and Your IMAP Client
If you are a Gmail user, you've probably noticed the annoying unread message count for the Spam folder. It's even worse when you use an IMAP client to access your email, and then try and use a search folder for unread mail... which gives you nothing but spam.
How to Re-Enable the about:config Warning Message in Firefox 3
If you've spent any time tweaking Firefox 3, you've probably seen the warning message telling you that you probably shouldn't be changing any settings. Thankfully you can remove the checkbox and make the message go away... but what if you wanted it back?
Building a New Computer - Part 2: Putting it Together
So you've picked out and purchased the hardware for your new computer, and you've already completed the most difficult step: Waiting for the parts to come in the mail. The next step is putting all of the pieces together, which we'll cover here.
Make New Folders in Your Vista User Directory Use Matching Greenish Icons
Have you ever noticed that new folders that you create inside of your Home directory in Vista just look out of place? All the built-in folders have those stylish greenish icons, and your folders are ugly and yellow.
