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.