When Windows freezes and you have to force a program to close you get the following error: “Windows has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.” Then there is some more text and it says, “Please tell Microsoft about this problem.” I don’t know anyone that actually does this and it’s quite annoying because this dialog pops up every time you force a program to close. This is easy to disable.
Spyware and viruses can be difficult to delete. Often times when you locate spyware on your computer and try to delete the file you get the following error: “Cannot delete file: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.” There is an easy way to remove these files.
Now when you right click on an icon, you will have the ability to “Delete in-use file.” See the screenshot below:
If you choose to delete the in-use file you will be prompted with the following dialogue. If you choose “OK” the file will be deleted when you restart.
It is very useful to combine multiple PDF documents into one file. This is useful especially if you accumulate many PDFs (newsletters, bills, etc.) over time. I will walk you through the process of doing this in Windows XP using only free software.
You can automatically mount your Linux partition in Windows and have read/write functionality with a freeware application called Ext2Fsd. I will take you through the process of mounting your Linux partition using Windows XP.
XnView is a freeware application for Windows, Linux, and Mac that allows you to quickly create many different types of photo projects including: collages, film strips, web pages, and slide shows. XnView also allows you to batch resize, convert, and rename pictures. XnView supports quite a few different languages. I’ll walk you through getting started. Click the screenshot below for an enlarged version.
The second step is to select a directory that contains your images and highlight each picture you want to be in your project (hold CTRL and click on each image).
Next, go to Create and choose the project you want. Creating each of the projects is very simple, so play around with it. One feature of XnView that I particularly like is that XnView allows you to tuck all of your pictures into a slideshow and export your slide show as an executable so that it can be viewed.
If you would like to batch convert your images you can do so in the Tools >> Batch Convert… section. See the screenshot below:
The following are useful key strokes to eliminate the use of the mouse and increase the speed of your browsing in Firefox. These keystrokes will work in Linux and Windows.
CTRL+L: Select the URL bar CTRL+K: Select the search bar CTRL+T: Open new tab CTRL+W: Close current tab CTRL+TAB: Shuffle tabs forward CTRL+SHIFT+TAB: Shuffle tabs backward CTRL+R: Refresh CTRL+F: Open find dialogue CTRL+H: Open history menu CTRL+D: Bookmark current page CTRL+U: View page source BACKSPACE: Go back one page ALT+RIGHT ARROW: Forward one page ALT+LEFT ARROW: Back one page ALT+HOME: Go to homepage CTRL+K followed by CTRL+DOWN ARROW: Select search bar and change search engine
Spyware and viruses can be difficult to delete. Often times when you locate spyware on your computer and try to delete the file you get the following error: “Cannot delete file: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.” There is an easy way to remove these files.
