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Category: pc support

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Make Your Windows 7 PC Not Shutdown when You Accidentally Hit the Power Button

    Is your computer in an odd place where you sometimes find yourself accidentally hitting the power button and it shuts down in the middle of using it? Here we take a look at how to remedy the problem by instructing the power button what to do when it’s pressed.
    Open Control Panel and select Power Options, then on the left side click on Choose what the power button does.
    Then click on the dropdown box and select Do Nothing from the menu and click on Save changes.

    From the dropdown list you can also select Shutdown, Sleep or Hibernate. But, if you are annoyed when you accidentally hit the button and it shuts down, choosing Do Nothing will keep it running.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Make the Taskbar Buttons Switch to the Last Active Window in Windows 7

    The new Windows 7 taskbar‘s Aero Peek feature, with the live thumbnails of every window, is awesome. But sometimes you just want to be able to click the taskbar button and have the last open window show up instead. Here’s a quick hack to make it work better.
    To better understand the problem, imagine having nine windows of the same type open on your screen, but you are primarily working in just one of the windows at a time. So every time you want to switch back, you have to click the taskbar button, and then choose the one you are using from the list, which can be pretty annoying.
    Now if you know your Windows 7 shortcuts, you’d know that you can simply hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the taskbar button, and the last window will show up. In fact, you can keep holding down the Ctrl key and keep clicking, and Windows will cycle through the open windows. It’s a useful shortcut, but hardly something you want to do every single time.
    Instead, we’ll use a quick registry hack to make the normal click switch to the last open window—if you still want to see the thumbnail list, just hover your mouse over the button for half a second to see the full list.
    Registry Hack for Last Active Window
    Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then head down to the following registry key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
    Once you’re there, create a new 32-bit DWORD value on the right hand side, give it the name LastActiveClick, and set the value to 1. Once you are done, it should look something like this:
    Once you are done, you’ll have to log off and back on, or you can kill Explorer.exe through Task Manager and re-open it.

  • CityVille Beginner’s Guide

    CityVille Beginner’s Guide


    CityVille is comparatively newest game from Zynga, the makers of the very popular FarmVille and FrontierVille games on Facebook. In CityVille, you move out of the quiet countryside settings of those two games to construct your own successful city from its simple beginnings into a metro city. The game features a lot of challenging dynamics which is fun, but can also be confusing. So here’s a CityVille Beginner’s Guide, featuring CityVille cheats, strategies, tips and tricks to get up and running quickly.
    CityVille Beginner’s Guide
    Your tiny little habitat will become a booming metropolis quickly in CityVille.
    CityVille Basics
    If you’ve played any games recently on Facebook, especially any of the city building themed games, then the basics of CityVille will already be familiar. You’ll try to level up by accumulating XP, earn coins, utilize cash and manage your energy.
    Energy
    Energy is one of the more precious resources in the game. FrontierVille players are already familiar with the concept, but old-school FarmVille players may not have seen it before. Basically, you use up energy on each of the tasks you perform in the game. Energy recharges automatically over time (Very slowly), and there are several different ways to speed it up.  All you need to know as a beginner, however, is that you’ll want to maximize your energy use early in the game.
    Experience(XP)
    XP, which stants 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.
    Coins and Cash

    Coins and cash are familiar concepts. for those who are not familiar, Coins are the lifeblood of your city. You’ll spend them to build just about everything. You can also spend coins on goods for your businesses. You earn coins by operating businesses in your city, which consume goods. Cash is the paid currency in CityVille. You start out with some free cash and earn a little bit as you level up. But for the most part, cash must be purchased from Zynga. Cash unlocks certain special exclusive items in the game and also can be used to accelerate the building of some items, particularly community buildings.
    Houses
    All of your city dwellers need a place to live, and there are a lot of housing choices in the game. You earn rent from all the houses, so they are an important source of coins, especially early on in the game. Each type of house holds a different number of people and larger houses cost more to build. You’re also limited by a population cap, which is the maximum number of residents you can have in your city. To raise that cap, you must construct community buildings.
    Community Buildings
    Community Buildings is a new and confusing concept in CityVille. In order to grow your population cap, you’ll need to build community buildings. In addition to costing coins and energy to construct, community buildings need to be staffed by employees. You can either recruit your friends to join your staff for each building or pay cash to fill the positions. The first community building you’ll construct will be City Hall. After that, you’ll want to build a post office and police station and so on.
    Businesses
    Businesses are another core component of your city. They provide a place for your residents to spend money, earning coins for your city. The first business you’ll build in the game is a bakery, and you’ll be able to create several different businesses as you gain levels. A very important concept in CityVille is the use of goods. Businesses need to be supplied with goods, which you can produce at your farm and later on through trade with neighbors.
    CityVille Businesses
    People need to shop and businesses in CityVille are a big part of your growth.
    Franchises
    Another new concept in CityVille is franchises. Once you’ve build a Franchise Headquarters, you can place franchises of your businesses in your neighbor’s cities. You then supply your franchises with goods and collect coins from those businesses as well. Franchises require a little more management and require a solid supply of goods, but can be a very lucrative way to earn lots of coins in the game.
    Farming
    So finally when you thought that now you’ve moved to the big city you wouldn’t have to worry about farming anymore? Not so easy! Farming is a critical part of the game. Crops can be planted and tended to create goods, which supply your businesses and franchises in the game. The crops work very similarly to how they did in FarmVille and FrontierVille. Each type of crop produces a different amount of goods and has a different harvest time, ranging from 5 minutes to a day or two. Crops left untended will wither and die, resulting in a loss of the coins used to plant them.
    CityVille Farm
    Farming is still a big part of city life. An added complexity is storage. Because your goods aren’t consumed all at once, you’ll need to store them. You start out with a single barn, but will quickly want to create silos and other storage buildings to contain all the goods you produce at the farm.
    CityVille Shipping
     
    Shipping can be done two ways: by train or by, well, ship. You’ll only have access to shipping via train until a later mission comes along that involves building a pier and whatnot. Luckily, the train station is raring to go as soon as you arrive. However, we don’t recommend you jump into shipping until you’re well into the swing of things
    Quests
    Your early experience with CityVille will be filled with several goals and quests that you receive. In addition to teaching you some of the core concepts of the game, the goals provide you with important early rewards that will help you grow quickly. In fact, you can pretty much stick to following goals through the first several levels of the game. In some cases, you might want to hold off on doing certain tasks (like building storage silos) until you get a goal that requires you to build them.
    Friends and Neighbors

    Friends and Neighbors have always been a big part of games on Facebook, but they become critical in CityVille. You can visit all of your friends cities and help them tend to houses, businesses, and farms. In return, your friends will be able to do the same in your city. And friends become especially important when it comes to expansion. You’ll need your friends to help you out when it comes to staffing your community buildings so that you can grow your small little town into a thriving city. Visiting and helping friends is also a great way to quickly replenish your diminishing energy supply.

    We will publish detailed and advanced tips and tricks from next Week onwards so keep watching this space

  • Windows 7 Tips

    How To Disable or Enable the Homegroup Feature in Windows 7
    Have you ever used the Homegroup feature in Windows 7? It’s a great way to share files and printers with all your Windows 7 computers, but if you don’t want it anymore, you can disable or enable the feature easily.
    Disable the Homegroup Feature in Windows 7
    The first thing you’ll want to do is open up Windows Explorer, right-click on the Homegroup option in the left-hand pane, and then choose Change HomeGroup settings.
    At the bottom of the window, you’ll find an option called “Leave the homegroup”, which you should click.
    Now you’ll be presented with a wizard asking you to confirm that you really want to leave the homegroup.
    This disables the homegroup, but doesn’t remove it from the navigation pane.
    Remove Homegroup from the Navigation Pane
    Next, you’ll want to open up services.msc in the start menu search box, or just find it through Control Panel. Find HomeGroup Listener in the list, and double-click on it.
    Change the Startup type to Disabled, and click the Stop button to stop the service. Once you’re done with that, you’ll need to disable the Homegroup Provider service in the same way.
    At this point you’ll notice that it’s gone from the navigation pane.
    How to Enable Homegroup Again
    First, you’ll want to enable the service again—head back into services.msc, find the HomeGroup Listener and set it to automatic. Next, head into Control Panel –> Network and Internet, and then click on HomeGroup.

    Then, simply click on the Create a Homegroup button, and follow the prompts. If your button says Join a homegroup, follow that wizard instead.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    How To Disable Control Panel in Windows 7
    If you have a shared computer that your family and friends can access, you might not want them to mess around in the Control Panel, and luckily with a simple tweak you can disable it.
    Disable Control Panel with Group Policy
    Note: This process uses Local Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7. Skip down below for the registry hack version that works on Home editions as well.
    First type gpedit.msc into the Search box in the Start menu and hit Enter.
    When Local Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates then select Control Panel in the left Column. In the right column double-click on Prohibit access to the Control Panel.
    In the next window, select Enable, click OK, then close out of Local Group Policy Editor.


    After the Control Panel is disabled, you’ll notice it’s no longer listed in the Start Menu.

    If the user tries to type Control Panel into the Search box in the Start menu, they will get the following message indicating it’s restricted.


  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut to Enable/Disable Aero Transparency in Windows 7

    Manually Enable/Disable Aero Transparency
    You can achieve the same result by right-clicking on the Desktop and choosing Personalize and then “Window Color and Appearance”
    You should see the “Enable transparency” checkbox in this screen, which works immediately.
    Create Aero Transparency Shortcut
    Right-click anywhere and choose New \ Shortcut, and then enter in one of the following into the Location box to create the new shortcut.
    Turn Aero Transparency Off
    rundll32.exe dwmApi #104
    Turn Aero Transparency On

    rundll32.exe dwmApi #102

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Disable System Restore in Windows 7

    If you need a way to save some hard drive space one trick is to decrease the size or completely disable the System Restore feature.  We like to share all options on how to take control of your operating system, so for readers living on the edge this tip is for you. 
    Note:  Keep in mind Windows 7 is just being released and there could be bugs, crashes, etc., and you won’t be able to restore your system if disaster strikes!
    Disable System Restore
    Now with all that being said, Open Control Panel, switch to all items view and click on System.  In the next window click on the System Protection link.

    The System Properties dialog box opens where you will want to select your system disc and click the Configure button.
    Under Restore Settings select “Turn off system protection” and click Apply.

    You will get a confirmation warning screen to verify you want to turn it off, so it is not too late to change your mind.  Click Yes to save all the space possible if you still like living on the edge.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Automatically Lock Your Computer When You’re Away

    Would you like your computer to automatically lock and require you to enter your password when you exit the screensaver?  Here’s how to quickly change your screensaver settings to keep your computer secure when you’re away.
    To get started, right-click on your desktop, and click Personalize to open the personalization settings dialog.

    Click Screen Saver under the themes to change your screensaver settings.
    Alternately, if you’d rather open the screensaver settings without grabbing your mouse, hit the Win key and enter Screen Saver in the search box, and select Change screen saver.

    This will open the Screen Saver settings dialog.  Select the screensaver you want, then check the box to display the login screen when you exit the screen saver.  Enter the number of minutes you want to wait before your screensaver starts, then click OK to save your settings.
    Now, after the length of time you selected, you’ll see your screensaver as normal.

    Then, when you move the mouse or press a key, you’ll see the normal login screen instead of your desktop. Enter your password and login as normal to access your computer.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Allow Users To Run Only Specified Programs in Windows 7

    If you have a shared or public computer you might want to allow users to use only specified programs. Today we take a look at a setting in Local Group Policy that allows you to set only specified programs to run.
    Note: This process uses Local Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7.
    First click on Start and enter gpedit.msc into the search box and hit Enter.
    Navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ System. Then under Setting scroll down and double click on Run only specified Windows applications.
    Set it to Enabled, then under the Options section click on the Show button next to List of allowed applications.
    A Show Contents dialog comes up where you can type in the apps you want to allow users to run. When finished with the list, click OK then close out of Local Group Policy Editor.
    If a user tries to access an application that is not on the specified list they will receive the following error message.

    This is a nice feature for limiting what programs users can or cannot access on the computer.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Add “Run as Administrator” to Any File Type in Windows 7

    Have you ever tried to unzip a file to the Program Files directory in Windows 7? You’ll get all sorts of permission denied errors, and generally be unsuccessful. So how do we open up the zipfile as an administrator? For that matter, how do you open any file as administrator?
    There’s a simple registry tweak that will let us specify the action to run as administrator for a file type.
    Manual Registry Tweak
    Open regedit through the start menu search or run box and then browse down to the following key, substituting “.zip” for the file extension that you are looking for.
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.zip
    Now you want to take note of the Data value for the “(Default)” item. This tells you which application is registered to handle this file type, and also where we need to go in the registry next.
    For this example, since the data field in this example says “WinRAR.ZIP” we’ll need to browse down to the following registry key. (again, the find dialog helps here)
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WinRAR.ZIP\shell\open\command
    What we want to do is copy the shell\open\command section to shell\runas\command. The easiest way to do that is right-click on “command” and then choose Export.
    Now open up the exported registry file in Notepad and change “open” to “runas” where indicated below:
    Double-click on the file to enter the information into the registry. Now you’ll see that the “runas” section is identical to the “open” section:

    And now you can right-click on a file and open it as administrator: