Windows XP Tips and Tricks

How To Turn Off ‘thumbs.db’ File In Explorer.

The thumbs.db file is a file that all windows xp users are familiar with. Some find it disturbing, some term it as a virus while some don’t care. It is a small database file that caches the location of the current item in that location. To turn it off: Go to: My Documents> Tools> Folder Options> View Tab> check ‘Do not cache thumbnails’> Apply and OK





How To View Hidden Files

There are some viruses that attack a system and disable the user from viewing hidden files from folder options even after removing them. In this case, to view hidden files, you need to edit the registry. Scared? Don’t be. Its very simple if you follow these steps:
Start> Run> ‘regedit’
At the left pane of the registry, expand: My Computer> HKEY_CURRENT_USER> Software> Microsoft> Windows> Current Version> Explorer> Advanced
At the right pane, right click ‘Hidden’,
select ‘Modify’,
Under ‘Value’,
enter 1.




How To Remove ‘Recent Documents’ Menu from Start.

In case you want to remove the ‘Recent Documents’ menu, follow these steps:
Start> Run> ‘regedit’
At the left pane: My Computer> HKEY_CURRENT_USER> Software> Microsoft> Windows> Current Version> Policies> Explorer
Right click ‘Explorer’ and select New> DWORD Value (as shown)


At the right pane: Type in "NoRecentDocsMenu" without the quotes.
Right click ‘NoRecentDocsMenu’ and select ‘Modify’.
Under ‘Value’, enter 00000001 and click OK.
Exit regedit.

Piece of cake!

Macromedia_Video_Desktop.tutorial (for macromedia newbies)

This tutorial shows you how a make a video background for your desktop using flash and dreamweaver without any fore knowledge of these softwares.

Requirements: Macromedia suite (dreamweaver and flash required)


Steps:
• Start> Programs> Macromedia> Flash
• Start a new flash document.
• Drag the picture you want to use into the flash window.
• Right click the picture and go to Timeline Effects> Effects> Blur. Click OK at the Blur window.
• Create a folder called ‘video’ anywhere on your system and save your work there as vid.fla.
• Then, go to Controls> Test Movie; to see how the effect is and also to export the swf file.
• After you’ve done that, close flash and open Dreamweaver.
• Select HTML document from the first screen of dreamweaver.
• Then, go to Insert> Media> Shockwave and select the swf file from the video folder(vid.swf).
• After inserting the shockwave file (swf), you need to resize it to fit your desktop. To do this go to Window> Properties> set the width (W) and the height (H) to fit your screen resolution. (you can get your screen resolution from Control Panel> Display> Settings)
• Save your file as vid.html in the video folder.
• You can now close dreamweaver
• Go to Control Panel> Display> Desktop> browse(navigate to the video folder)> vid.html.
• Apply> OK
• See, it works!!!