Windows 8

1.Windows Vista/7/8/

 View WiFi network password 

Viewing the password for the 
WiFi network your computer's connected 
to is pretty simple. Right-click on the 
network symbol in the taskbar, open 
“Open Network and Sharing Center” and 
click the link “Manage Wireless networks”. 
In the next dialogue, right-click on the 
relevant wireless network and select the 
context command “Properties”. Switch to 
the “Security” tab and then activate the 
option “Show characters”. The “Security 
key” field will show the WiFi network's 
password. 

2.Windows XP/Vista/7/8

 View the status of drives and  SSDs in detail

Data loss due to defective hard 
drives is very exasperating. In order to 
prevent it, you should regularly check 
the status of your drives by perusing 
the internal SMART values. Look for 
the entry “Error-free” in the Control 
Panel under “System and Security | 
Management | Computer management 
| Disk management”. This entry denotes 
that there is nothing wrong with your 
system. 
However, you can perform a more 
accurate test using the application 
CrystalDiskInfo. It automatically analyses 
all the accessible drives and represents 
them according to their status and 
current temperature. Besides some 
information about the interface and the 
serial number, you will find data about 
the drives' operating hours and startup 
operations. In case of SSD drives, the 
“Host write processes” field will be listed 
in terabytes and should be noted. The 
other area shows the SMART parameters 
read from the hardware. You can choose 
to view the results in decimal values by 
using the command “Options | Additional 
Options | Hex-value | 10 [DEC]”. 
In the list, the column “Hex value” 
shows the raw data, while the “Current 
value” field shows the data normalised 
in relation to a “Limit value”. In case of 
drives, “Reallocated sectors” occasionally 
emerge. This may indicate user 
interface problems and even imminent 
breakdowns. Even if the drive itself 
evaluates the value as good (higher 
than limit value), you should carefully 
observe any developments. You can set 
the tool to run at start-up and even send 
you notifications via e-mail. A detailed 
evaluation of individual SMART values is 
difficult, but is not required in most cases. 
If you want to explore this topic further, a 
look at Wikipedia may prove to be useful: 
http://bit.ly/ZMbOCD.

3.Windows 7/8

 Set a slideshow as the  desktop background

A slideshow of preset image 
folders can be set as the desktop 
background by using the option "Change 
all images". The images are changed 
with a short crossfade by default. The 
time interval for replacing the individual 
images can be confi gured in the Registry. 
For this, type "regedit" in the Start menu, 
press the Enter key and click "Yes" on 
the User Account Control dialogue box. 
Once the Registry Editor opens, navigate 
to the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
Control Panel\Personalization\
Desktop Slideshow". Now click in 
the right side panel and generate the 
new entry "AnimationDuration" with 
the command "Edit | New | DWORDvalue". Now open the new value with a double-click for editing. Change 
the base to "Decimal" and enter the 
desired duration in milliseconds. For 
example, a value of "0" will result in 
an immediate change without any 
animations and a value of "5000" 
will result in a smooth cross-fade 
animation. Confirm your changes with 
"OK" and close the registry editor. The 
changes will be effective immediately.

4.Windows 7/8

 Configure auto-complete in  Internet Explorer

When you type in the address bar 
of Internet Explorer, some websites that 
you visited earlier are suggested. This 
behaviour remains in effect even when 
you have deleted the browsing history. 
This phenomenon results from the rather 
close connection Internet Explorer has 
with Windows search. Here, visited web 
pages are also suggested and options 
from the index are suggested when 
similar URLs are being typed in. This 
functional expansion exists in Internet 
Explorer 8 and even in Windows XP, 
despite Windows search being installed 
as an extra. Those who do not want 
their browsing history to be suggested 
can do away with this integration. For 
this, open "Extras | Internet options" 
in Internet Explorer or click on the 
Settings symbol and then on "Internet 
options". Now click on the "Contents" 
tabs and then on the "Settings" 
button under "Auto-complete". 
Deactivate the option "Windows 
search for better search results" as 
well as—if available—"Suggest URLs". 
Further, you can choose to delete the 
auto-complete history and carry out 
adjustments in the following dialogue.

5.Windows XP/Vista/7 

 Repair problematic Recycle bin

It is possible for the Recycle bin 
to malfunction all of a sudden due to 
system problems and thus become 
useless. The windows error notification 
with the option to empty the Recycle bin 
does not help any more. What's more, 
each delete process is accompanied by 
an error. To solve this problem, manually 
delete the hidden system folder; it will 
be automatically re-created without 
errors by Windows. 
You need to open a command line 
with administrative rights to access the 
system folder. To do this, type in "cmd" 
in the Start menu, click on the result 
"cmd.exe" with the right mouse button, 
and then select "Run as administrator". 
Confirm the User Account Control 
dialogue box. Now using the command 
line, change to the parent folder of the 
concerned drive.
In XP, the hidden folder is called 
"Recycler", and from Vista onwards 
"$RECYCLE.BIN". To make Windows 
show this folder, use the command "dir 
/a". If your system has multiple Windows 
installations, you might fi nd both kinds 
of Recycle bin folders, but you must 
delete the one which belongs to the OS 
with the problem. For this, use a similar 
command: "rd /s /q $RECYCLE.BIN". Pay 
attention to the exact capitalisation in 
case of the folder names, because the 
system will otherwise not find the folder. 
If the access is denied, it is possible that 
you do not have administrative access. 
On the system drive, the Recycle bin 
is blocked by Windows and you must 
start the system in Secure Mode to be 
able to perform the described steps. 
Delete the relevant folders from all the 
relevant drives. Windows will re-create 
the Recycle bin folders when the system 
starts next and you can use it again. 

6.Windows XP/Vista/7/8 

 Browse through the Windows  Store without the app

Until now, the only way to access 
the contents of the Windows Store was 
by means of an app in Windows 8. If 
you want an overview of the Store's 
45,000 apps, but don't have Windows 8 
installed, you don't really need to install 
Windows 8. You can now manage to 
do so free of cost with the help of the website 
MetroStore Scanner. 
Open the webpage www.metrostore.
preweb.sk. The search function with the 
field "Filter" lets you search for specifi c 
apps. Using the menu fi lter, the view 
can be restricted to the apps available 
in India under "Country" and with the 
setting "en-in". The filter "Type" enables 
you to select from categories like Finance, 
Games or Social.