Category: bamleo

  • Windows7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Switch Power Plans

    Have you ever wanted to be able to just hit a hotkey that tells Windows to switch from High Performance down to Power Saver? Sure, you can use the tray icon, but since we like to customize things there’s always another way.

    Using the powercfg Command

    Windows 7 and Vista come with the powercfg command that you can use from the command prompt, and we’ll have to use this tool to figure out the GUID—the internal ID that Windows uses—for the plan itself.

    To find the power scheme GUID, simply open up a command prompt and type in the following:

    powercfg –list

    As you can see in the screenshot, you can use the –setactive argument to actually switch between the plans from the command line, which is how we’ll create the shortcut.

    Creating the Shortcut

    Next you’ll need to create a shortcut by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing New \ Shortcut.

    You’ll want to use the following in the application shortcut, replacing the GUID with your own:

        powercfg -setactive

    Note how it looks in the screenshot… yours should look the same.

    You can repeat the same thing to create another shortcut for one of the other power plans.

    Customize the Shortcut

    Now that we have some fancy shortcuts, you can make them look better by tweaking the icon, and then assign a shortcut key. There are a number of really great icons in the following Windows DLL file:

        C:\Windows\System32\powercpl.dll

    And you can assign a shortcut key to switch power schemes on the fly.

    Once you’re all done, you should have two new icons, ready to use.
  • Windows7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Eject the CD/DVD Drive

    Create a Shortcut to Eject the CD/DVD Drive

    Right-click on the desktop or elsewhere and choose New \ Shortcut.

    In the location box, put the full path to the nircmd.exe file that you downloaded, and append the “cdrom open” command to the end of it, adjusting the drive letter to match your disc drive:

        “C:\path\to\nircmd.exe” cdrom open D:

    Note the location of the quotes.. if you are using a path with spaces in it, you need to make sure the quotes are only around the path to the executable, and the arguments should be placed after the quote.

    Give the shortcut a meaningful name, like Eject CD or something like that, and you’ll have a new icon (read below on how to use the cd-rom icon as shown)

    You can move the icon to anywhere you’d like… double-clicking on it will immediately eject the drive.

    Create a Shortcut to Close the CD/DVD Drive

    You can follow the same exact instructions as above, but instead of “cdrom open” just substitute “cdrom close”.

    Assign a Hotkey to the Shortcut

    Now that we have a shortcut, we can assign a hotkey to the shortcut by right-clicking on the icon and choosing Properties. On the Shortcut tab you’ll see a place to assign the Shortcut key:

    Add in the shortcut key and close the dialog. As long as the shortcut is on your desktop you shouldn’t have to restart anything for the hotkey to work.

    Assign an Icon to the Shortcut

    If you click on the Change Icon button in the properties window, you can give the shortcut a more meaningful icon, perhaps the DVD one you see below.

  • Windows7 Tips

    Create Icons to Start the Screensaver on Windows 7

    Create Screensaver Icon

    Right-click on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.

    In order to launch the screensaver, you’ll need to enter the full path to the screensaver file, followed by “/s

        %systemroot%\system32\Bubbles.scr /s

    You would want to substitute the name of the screensaver where you see “Bubbles.scr” above. Also note that I used %systemroot% instead of C:\windows because not every install uses the C: drive.

    If you don’t know the filename, you can browse down to your system32 folder and then search for “.scr” using the search box:


    You should see all of the names of all the screensavers installed on your system, which you can use in the location field.
  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut to Put Your Windows Computer into Hibernation

    Putting your Windows computer into Hibernation Mode allows you to save power, and quickly access your desktop again when you need it. Here we show how to create a shortcut to put your PC in Hibernation Mode quickly.
    Note: Here we show how to create the shortcut in Windows 7 and add it to the Taskbar. But creating the shortcut should work in XP and Vista as well.
    Create Shortcut
    Right-click an empty area on your desktop and select New \ Shortcut from the Context Menu.
    In the Create Shortcut window type or copy the following in the location field
        C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll, SetSuspendState 0,1,0
    Now give the shortcut a name such as Hibernate Computer or whatever you want to call it.
    Now you have the shortcut on your desktop, but you might want to change the icon to something else.
    Change Shortcut Icon
    Right-click the shortcut icon and select Properties.
    Select the Shortcut Tab and click the Change Icon button.
    In the Look for icons in this file field copy and past the following then click OK.
        %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll

    This brings up a list of included Windows icons you can choose from. Select whatever you want it to be.
    Now you will see the icon in the Shortcut Properties window, click OK.
    Here we have a nice looking shortcut that you can use to put your machine into Hibernation.
    You can pin the shortcut to the Taskbar for easy access.
  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut To Group Policy Editor in Windows 7

    If you’re a system administrator and find yourself making changes in Group Policy Editor, you might want to make a shortcut to it. Here we look at creating a shortcut, pinning it to the Taskbar, and adding it to Control Panel.
    Note: Local Group Policy Editor is not available in Home versions of Windows 7.
    Typing gpedit.msc into the search box in the Start menu to access Group Policy Editor can get old fast.
    To create a shortcut, right-click on the desktop and select New \ Shortcut.
    Next type or copy the following path into the location field and click Next.
        c:\windows\system32\gpedit.msc
    Then give your shortcut a name something like Group Policy, or whatever you want it to be and click Finish.
    Now you have your Group Policy shortcut.
    If you want it on the Taskbar just drag it there to pin it.
  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Mute the System Volume in Windows

    Have you ever had music playing loudly on your speakers when the phone rings and then you fumble for the speaker switch or the pause button on your music playing application while trying to answer the phone? Instead of bothering with that, I’ve always simply created a shortcut to mute the system volume instantly with the press of a key.
    Of course this isn’t terribly helpful if you have a multimedia keyboard with a mute button on-board, but some computers just don’t have one, or you don’t want to run the software required to make the keys work.
    Create the Shortcut
    In order to mute the system volume, we’ll use a small utility called NirCmd that we’ve mentioned numerous times before, since it’s the swiss army knife of useful shortcuts.
    Right-click on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.
    In the location box, you’ll want to browse down to the location of where you saved nircmd.exe, and then add “mutesysvolume 2″ as arguments. You’ll probably want to put quotes around the path to the executable, like this:
        “C:\Path\To\nircmd.exe” mutesysvolume 2

    Give the shortcut a useful name like “Toggle Mute”, and then open up the properties of the shortcut. Here you can assign a shortcut key, or you can change the icon to something else.
    I found the speaker icon in the following file, but you can choose another icon if you’d like:
        %SystemRoot%\System32\SndVol.exe
    Remember when using a shortcut key, you’ll want to keep the shortcut on the desktop or move it into the Start menu.
  • CityVille Guide – Experience (XP)

    CityVille Guide – Experience (XP)


    XP, which stands for Experience Points, is earned by completing all the various tasks, quests and activities in the game. As you earn more and more XP, you’ll advance in levels. Besides looking cool, you’ll unlock access to many new buildings and decorations in the game as you reach the higher levels.
    In CityVille you usually gain one or two XP points for each action you do, it does not matter how long it takes to complete this action. Because of this the best thing to do for gaining XP quickly is to focus on tasks that require as little time to do as possible.
    When you do tasks in CityVille you spend energy, so if you want to gain XP as quickly as possible you also need to make sure you get refills of energy frequently enough. If you run out of energy you can’t complete any more tasks until you gain back some energy points. The best way is to get as many CityVille friends as possible, as this will help you a lot with refilling your energy.
    How to Increase XP and jump the levels faster?
    Plant Strawberries

    A great way to get experience points easily in CityVille is planting and harvesting of strawberries. Just build a bunch of farm plots in your city, 20 or more and plant strawberries on all of them. Strawberries grow up in only five minutes, and as soon as you harvest you just plant again. You will get a lot of experience points quickly this way, and you will often get bonus energy as well. This tip will only work if you have extra energy to spare, but energy is easy to get as gifts from your friends anyways.
    Collections

    In addition to getting experience from harvesting the strawberries you will also be building up your strawberries collections. Once you have a complete strawberries collection you can trade this one in and get 3 extra XP points that way.
    Building Country Homes

    A great way to get experience points quickly is to build a lot of country homes in your city. You can collect the income from your country homes every 5 minutes. That is why they are so awesome when it comes to gaining XP. Each time you collect income from your country homes you will get one experience point from each house, this quickly adds up if you have a lot of them. You will sometime also get bonus energy when you’re doing so, which enables you to keep going longer before your energy runs out.
    Visiting Friends

    Like in Farmville, visiting friends daily grants you a whopping 3 Energy for nothing among other rewards like XP coins and Reputation points like same before we got Fuel, Mystery Gifts etc in Farmville, . The more friends you help, the more oomph you’ll have to do things back Home. Not to mention you’ll look good around your friends, who might come around and help you out some in return. (This is my favorite option Helping Friends around and in return we climb the ladder soon)
    No of XP required for each level:
    Level 1 – 0 XP – Dot on a Map
    Level 2 – 4 XP – Crossroads
    Level 3 – 16 XP – One-Horse Town
    Level 4 – 31 XP – Two-Horse Town
    Level 5 – 78 XP – SmallishVille
    Level 6 – 125 XP – Teeny Town
    Level 7 – 172 XP – Tween Town
    Level 8 – 219 XP – Young Town
    Level 9 – 276 XP – LargerVille
    Level 10 – 343 XP – Coup de Ville
    Level 11 – 420 XP – Traffic Town
    Level 12 – 507 XP – Big Town
    Level 13 – 604 XP – Terrific Town
    Level 14 – 711 XP – Boom Town
    Level 15 – 828 XP – Wee Lil’ City
    Level 16 – 955 XP – Small City
    Level 17 – 1092 XP – Pretty City
    Level 18 – 1239 XP – Citifield City
    Level 19 – 1396 XP – Happy Hood
    Level 20 – 1563 XP – Synchronicity
    Level 21 – 1740 XP – Silver City
    Level 22 – 1927 XP – Backwater Burgh
    Level 23 – 2124 XP – Windy City
    Level 24 – 2331 XP – Vast Village
    Level 25 – 2548 XP – Happy Hamlet
    Level 26 – 2775 XP – Shining Shire
    Level 27 – 3003 XP – City Scape
    Level 28 – 3232 XP – Funkadelphia
    Level 29 – 3462 XP – Modest Municipality
    Level 30 – 3693 XP – Booming Burgh
    Level 31 – 3925 XP – Witty City
    Level 32 – 4158 XP – Urban Expanse
    Level 33 – 4392 XP – Slick Suburb
    Level 34 – 4627 XP – Perfect Principality
    Level 35 – 4863 XP – Surging City
    Level 36 – 5100 XP – City Without Pity
    Level 37 – 5338 XP – Pot-holed Pit Stop
    Level 38 – 5577 XP – Stop Light Suburb
    Level 39 – 5817 XP – Swell City
    Level 40 – 6058 XP – Port of Progress
    Level 41 – 6300 XP – Slick City
    Level 42 – 6543 XP – Capitol City
    Level 43 – 6787 XP – Peppy Populous
    Level 44 – 7032 XP – Bustling Borough
    Level 45 – 7278 XP – Capital Of Cool
    Level 46 – 7525 XP – Virtuous Village
    Level 47 – 7773 XP – Quaint Escape
    Level 48 – 8022 XP – Concrete Jungle
    Level 49 – 8272 XP – Popular Province
    Level 50 – 8523 XP – Rural Retreat
    Level 51 – 8874 XP – Metropolis
    Level 52 – 9325 XP – Hoppin Hood
    Level 53 – 9876 XP – Emerald City
    Level 54 – 10527 XP – Neighborly Neighborhood
    Level 55 – 11278 XP – Breezy City
    Level 56 – 12129 XP – Peppy Podville
    Level 57 – 13080 XP – Diamond Den
    Level 58 – 14131 XP – Punctual Prefect
    Level 59 – 15282 XP – Quant Quahog
    Level 60 – 16533 XP – Golden Goodsville
    Level 61 – 17884 XP – Great Gotham
    Level 62 – 19335 XP – Expansive Expo
    Level 63 – 20886 XP – Country County
    Level 64 – 22537 XP – County Capitol
    Level 65 – 24288 XP – Viva Las City
    Level 66 – 26139 XP – M.C. Master City
    Level 67 – 28090 XP – City-o-rama
    Level 68 – 30141 XP – Citinator
    Level 69 – 32292 XP – Double Duchy
    Level 70 – 34543 XP – Crafty Commonwealth
    Level 71 – 36894 XP – Poppin Province
    Level 72 – 39345 XP – Laundable Land
    Level 73 – 41896 XP – Radical Region
    Level 74 – 44547 XP – Fantastic Bailwick
    Level 75 – 47298 XP – Super Metropolis
    Level 76 – 50149 XP – Captivating Canton
    Level 77 – 53100 XP – City Shipper
    Level 78 – 56151 XP – City o’ Lights
    Level 79 – 59302 XP – Happy Valley
    Level 80 – 62553 XP – Groove Town
    Level 81 – UNK XP – Rock Town
    Level 82 – UNK XP – Magic City
    Level 83 – UNK XP – Queen City
    Level 84 – UNK XP – Atomic City
    Level 85 – UNK XP – Final Frontier
    Level 86 – UNK XP – Creative Capitol
    Level 87 – UNK XP – Sweetistan
    Level 88 – UNK XP – Jam Packed Jubilee
    Level 89 – UNK XP – Monolithic Metro
    Level 90 – UNK XP – Star City
    Level 91 – UNK XP – Monkey Jungle
    Level 92 – UNK XP – Fubarb Rhubarb
    Level 93 – UNK XP – Steel City
    Level 94 – UNK XP – Steel Sturgentown
    Level 95 – UNK XP – Captivating Capitol
    Level 96 – UNK XP – Computron Town
    Level 97 – UNK XP – Urban Playground
    Level 98 – UNK XP – Funkitrony
    Level 99 – UNK XP – City of Cities
    Level 100 – UNK XP – Center of the Known CityVerse
  • Energy Resources in Cityville

    Energy Resources in Cityville

     
    As we promised we have put together the guide of  Energy for Cityville .Energy is the most essential and indispensable part of the game to build houses, to collect rent or to harvest crops. Without energy points, the player will be able only to seed plots or to dispatch goods to the business buildings.
    Energy can be restored when the player levels up or if he uses the energy batteries, however these batteries will cost in-game cash. To restore the energy points in CityVille, the player can use various strategies and tricks.

    We can increase energy in cityville by Proper management in building your city in CityVille, this is the key to dominate the game, but proper allocation of resource will also maximize our energy in City ville, how efficiently you will use your resources in this game that much energy you will save and this will help to increase energy too, the low energy you will spent will be able to recover energy quickly.But then the energy refill every five minutes that was a little problem in playing this game so you better check this guide:

    The major energies source of Cityville include
    1. Waiting
    2. Batteries
    3. Visiting Friends:
    4. Collection
    5. Gifiting
    6. Daily Bonus
    Waiting

    The first logical option you will see to increase energy in city ville is waiting, The energy will be refill after every 5 minutes, as long as we wait that much our energy will refill 1 point at a time, which can be very annoying for some of us but for the people who don’t mind go ahead by all means
    Batteries

    Batteries are the main source of energy in the Cityville, which we can get from friends, as many friends you have you will be able to get more energy here. Batteries can also be purchased with Cityville cash, just go to city menu and use city cash. Just click “Build” and then the lightning bolt icon to access the Energy shop where you can buy Batteries that give either 3, 7 or 12 Energy for 3, 6 and 9 City Cash, respectively.
    Visitng Friends

     
    Like in Farmville,visiting friends daily grants you a whopping 3 Energy for nothing among other rewards like XP coins and Reputation points like same before we got Fuel, Mystrey Gifts etc in farmville, . The more friends you help, the more oomph you’ll have to do things back Home. Not to mention you’ll look good around your friends, who might come around and help you out some in return. (This is my favorite option Helping Friends around and in return our energy level will quickly increase)
    Gifitng
    It is a feature which is almost included in every Zynga Poker Game, here as i mentioned earlier gifts from friends may include batteries and other accessories, as much as you send gifts to other, you will also be entitled to get energy batteries too, or may your friends also send the gift in return to you. this will also help us to increase energy quickly, with the latter two locked until you reach certain levels.
    Collections
    As much as collections of gifts we had, we can sell out these gifts for energy battries. Play game normally and collecting from properties like the Toy Shop and Coffee House, but there’s a neat little feature called the Wishlist that might help. Here in this game go to collection menu you’ll see that every item in each Collection contains a small button that looks like the RSS symbol (bottom left of the Collection item menu).Make your Wishlist here by clicking on this button and then Click Share , this will broadcast your wish list and friends will help you to complete your wishlist
    Daily Bonus
  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey for the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog

    If you often use removable USB devices like a flash drive, you are probably already familiar with the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon that sits in the system tray. The problem for many people is that the icon is tiny, and clicking it just right to bring up the menu is a pain. Can’t we just make a shortcut to bring up the dialog?
    Of course you can, and it’s really quite easy. Easier than trying to click the tiny icon in the tray.
    Create a Shortcut to the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog
    Right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut:
    Then paste in the following into the location box:
    RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
    Give it a name, and you’ll have a shortcut icon that will pull up the Safely Remove Hardware dialog.
    Assign a Shortcut Key
    If you want to assign a shortcut key to this dialog, you can right-click the icon and open the properties dialog, then go to the Shortcut tab.
    Add in the shortcut key and close the dialog. As long as the shortcut is on your desktop you shouldn’t have to restart anything for the hotkey to work. You can also move the shortcut to another folder, for instance your quick launch bar.
  • Windows 7 Tips

    Remove “Shortcut” Text From New Shortcuts in Windows 7

    A source of annoyance for many Windows users is the ” – Shortcut” text that is added to the name of newly created shortcuts, and every time you have to manually edit the shortcut and remove that text. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a registry hack for this?
    Notice the ” – Shortcut” added to my pidgin icon.
    Manual Registry Hack
    Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box, and then browse down to the following registry key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
    On the right-hand side you’ll find a key that is just called “link”, with a default value of 1e 00 00 00. Open this key up and change the 1e to 00 instead, leaving you with 00 00 00 00.
    You’ll have to log off and then back on to make this change take effect. Please note that this won’t affect existing shortcuts, only shortcuts that you create from now on.

    To change the setting back, just change back to the 1e value, log off and back on.