This trick is not as an alternative to quitting Windows, but is a good and easy alternative to exiting explorer when it hangs/stops responding. The normal way is to launch the Windows Task Manager, but through this way you don't need to do that; you just open the Start Menu using a shortcut can restart explorer, this is provided your hanging computer lets you access the Start Menu.
1. To bring up your Start menu, click on the blue orb or hit the windows key. 2. Hold down the "Ctrl+Shift" keys at the same time. 3. Right-click on an empty area of the menu or better yet on any of the buttons next to the Start Search i.e. save session (power button) and Lock computer icon. 4. You'll now see the option "Exit Explorer" under Properties. <__pagetitle__easy>
Customize send to menu For those who love using the 'send to menu' in Windows will love this customization tip. There are two ways to customize Windows 'send to menu', one is the much easier way by downloading an application that can do this for you and the other the manual way (but not necessarily difficult).
First the easy way, download the utility
Send to Toys . With this app you can add your own favourite locations such as USB drives, network locations or if you are savvy enough even command line options. It's very simple to do and needs no explanation. Just remember not to change locations of folders where you are copying/moving stuff to, that's all.
For those who'd prefer the manual method, here it is... The basic principle is to put shortcuts in the Send To menu for frequently used folders. 1. To access your SendTo folder, you'll need to navigate to the SendTo folder, which can prove a bit cumbersome with unhiding system protected files, etc. Instead just copy-paste the following;
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo Just replace
user with your login name. If in case your Windows in installed in a different drive other than C drive, simply replace C with another drive letter.
2. When in the folder, make shortcuts of any folder that you want to see appearing in SendTo folder.
3. To make shortcuts, the fastest way is to select the folder that you want a shortcut of, by
holding down the Alt key and then dragging it to an empty space. The shortcut should immediately appear. <__pagetitle__customize>
Increase Windows Vista Experience Index to 9.9 Here's a neat way to trick Window Vista (and your friends) into thinking that you've one of the best computers around. The trick basically alters your Experience Index to a max score of 9.9.
Couple of things to Note before we get into the nitty-gritties of this trick. 1. This trick doesn't actually increase performance or anything closely related to it, it just fools Windows Vista and perhaps some users. However, there is some vista related stuff that is enabled if your score is high, e.g. a toolbar in Photo Gallery's Slide Show. Most users will not have this problem, as all computers/laptops sold with Vista Home Premium, Business and above have all Vista features enabled. 2. The trick involves taking ownership of files (which is shown how). Before doing that users are requested to backup the files just in case. 3. The score can be cheated into going all the way up to 9.9 only. Why not 99.99? Simply because any value above 9.9 becomes invalid and doesn't show up. You'll have a completely blank area if you mess with any number higher than 9.9, see the screenshot below.
4. The fourth and the final point, there is a very easy way to identify whether the score is a cheat or not. Right next to the new fake updated score will be clearly mentioned "Unrated". There is no way to remove that and therefore those who are observant will instantly catch the discrepancy. See screenshot below.
In order to change the score, here's what we have to do... 1. Go to the directory that holds the score .xml files <__pagetitle__increase>
C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore 2. You should now find one or two files with dates assigned to them, some like 2008-09-16 14.21.18.943 Assessment (Initial).WinSAT.xml and/or 2008-11-03 15.57.25.229 Assessment (Formal).WinSAT.xml The filename with
(Initial) is the file that came along with Windows Vista when in was initially installed, date is mentioned next to it too (a way to identify when Windows was first installed). The second file name (if it's there), called
(Formal) is the file that is created when you finish the Experience index rating.
3. Backup
(Initial) xml file present here, simply copy paste in the same folder. If you've the
(Formal) xml, just rename by adding a character before the file name such as a
- or
backup before the file name such as
_2008-11-03 15.57.25.229 Assessment (Formal).WinSAT.xml . It is important to rename this file or delete it as the cheated index will not appear otherwise. Besides modifying the Formal xml document will result in nothing at all showing up in the Experience Index. 4. Now we need to
Take the Ownership of the
(Initial) xml file, as Windows will not allow changes to it. For that... a. Right-click the
(Initial) xml file, click <__pagetitle__c:\windows\performance\winsat\datastore>
Properties. b. Click on
Security tab, click on
Users with your own user name next to it. Should be only one if you are the only user of your computer.
c. Note underneath where it says
Permissions for Users, under that is
Full Control which has nothing under the
Allow column. This means that you (the username) cannot modify this file but only Read the file. To change this hit
Edit above. d. When the Permissions box opens click on
Users with your own user name next to it. Now under the
Permissions for Users, under that is
Full Control tick mark
Allow checkbox. Click OK two times to save your changes.
Phew! Now we have the ownership of the file. 5. Now to actually modify
(Initial) xml file. Don't open Notepad and it ruins the entire formatting. Open up Wordpad instead; click open in it (as drag and drop will not work) and select
All Documents.
6. Locate the file in
C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore, just copy paste the path in the open box and hit enter, you'll go there instantly. 7. Look for
, every numerical value under this line can be changed. Time for some magic!
8. Change all numbers to 9.9, remember to change all numbers. You can get away with changing only
System score but in reality your cheat will not make sense as system score takes into account the lowest score of your system to show as overall score. So even if one shows up as lower than 9.9, the average score will not make sense. That is the reason why my actual system score shows as 4.8 due to my CPU getting that low score in spite of all others scores being above 5.2. Have fun showing this to your friends bragging about your PC. Also enjoy certain features that Vista may have disabled, though you'll notice a slow down if your system isn't capable of using these features adequately. Let us know your experiences with these tricks below. Have suggestions or better ways, do write in. <__pagetitle__properties>
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