Category Archives: tips

Change Start Menu Power Button

Thanks to a tip from Paul Thurrott on the WinSuperSite, I finally found the way to change the start menu power button in Vista. By default, the power button puts your system to the new hybrid sleep mode. If you want the power button to actually go ahead and turn your computer off (like it should) you can do this:

  • Open Control Panel
  • Click on Hardware and Sound (default) or Power Options (classic)
  • Click Change Plan Settings
  • Change Advanced Power Settings
  • Under Power buttons and lid, change start menu power button from sleep to shutdown

vistapower.jpg

The start menu power button is now red instead of orange and will shut your computer down!

Traffic Conditions on Google and Windows Live

I’ve been a huge Google fan for over a year now and I use Google Maps for almost all of my mapping needs.  However, I moved to Chicago and the traffic here is, well, crappy.  So I had to find a map system that gave me visual traffic conditions.  I found out that Windows Live Local has the traffic feature built into its maps.

Today, I noticed on the Google Blog that they have now added that functionality to Google Maps which is great.  They have about 30 cities that will display the traffic conditions of the major interstates and highways.

Yahoo! Maps has traffic info too, but I’m not as much of a fan of Yahoo! anymore.  :)

My Favorite Firefox Add-Ons

1.) Del.icio.us Extension – this is an extension you can install to give you easy access to your online bookmarks via del.icio.us. Very cool and it makes it so simple to tag a page (control+shift+/) and view your bookmarks with the del.icio.us icon button. Check it out.

2.) Firefox Showcase – this extension lets your add the functionality of IE 7’s awesome “Quick Tabs” feature. Showcase allows you to view all of your open tabs in a single window and allows you to then choose the tab you’d like to focus on. Very cool feature from IE 7 now easily available for Firefox (which is why extensions rock!).

3.) FireFTP – this allows you to connect to various FTP sites with an awesome and simple interface within Firefox. Check it out!

4.) Greasemonkey – this allows you to customize the web in ways you might not be able to imagine, highly recommended.

5.) FavLoc – allows you to set favorite download folders so you can easily download files into different directories!

6.) DownThemAll! – installs a much needed download manager.

All of the Firefox Recommended Add-ons are awesome as well and I suggest you check them out to add much needed functionality to Firefox. I don’t go overboard, for example right now I only have Del.icio.us and Showcase installed because I like to keep a few, stable extensions installed for stability and simplicity. I also just keep the classic Firefox 2 theme because most other themes are not good enough for me :)

Vista Tricks Part 1

How to Change User Information in Windows Vista

1.) First things first. Backup your registry! Open the registry editor by typing “regedit” in the search field in the start menu or by using the Run command. Then click on File>Export. Type a descriptive name for the backup, I usually add the date, then click “Save“. This will allow you to restore your registry if you happen to, you know, screw this up :)

2.) Okay. Now navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

3.) To change the company name: double-click RegisteredOrganization and type what you want in the ValueData field, then click OK.

4.) To change the owner: double-click on RegisteredOwner and type what you want in the ValueData field, then click OK.

5.) Click on File>Exit

6.) To test it out, first open a Windows explorer folder by pressing: WinKey & E

7.) Then, press the Alt key once and it will bring up the classic Windows menu, click on Help>About Windows and you should see your new data there!

8.) Rock on. :)