Entries tagged with tips - Channel 10

Add Spaces to your Taskbar

Sarah Perez — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:38:00 GMT

Over on the (unofficial) SevenForums site, one user has come up with a way to insert spaces into your Windows 7 taskbar so you can create separated icon groups. The trick involves creating some blank shortcuts that lead to a fake program and pinning those shortcuts to the taskbar.

To facilitate the process, he provided a zip file containing multiple “blank shortcuts” and blank.exe files. (Don’t worry – we scanned them with Microsoft Security Essentials – they’re safe. Other forum users tested them too).

After extracting the files, you’ll have a folder called “Blank” and a ReadMe.txt. Before pinning the Shortcuts to the taskbar, you have to move the entire “Blank” folder to C:\Windows. Then grab a shortcut and drag it to the taskbar. Now, instead of seeing a blank (white) icon, you’ll just see a space! The zip file contains four different “blank” shortcuts and you can only use one of each.

What a great trick!

Adding Flip 3D to Windows 7's Taskbar

Sarah Perez — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:09:00 GMT

The Windows7News blog has a handy tip on how you can add Windows 7’s Flip 3D feature directly to the new Windows 7 taskbar. Introduced in Windows Vista, Flip 3D is the more dazzling version of Windows Flip which lets you cycle through your open windows using a keyboard shortcut. Most users are already familiar with the basic “Flip” action – a cycling feature activated by pressing ALT + TAB. However, those who are just arriving to Windows 7 from Windows XP may not have known about “Flip 3D,” a feature introduced in Vista. Activated through Windows Key + TAB, the open windows’ thumbnails are now live updating, meaning if you have a video playing in one, it will continue to play in the 3D interface.

Although this feature is only a keyboard combo away, there are those of you out there who prefer to have access to features from icons you can click with your mouse. (You’ll know if you fall into this category if you’ve been finding yourself wondering why the “Show Desktop” button got moved in Windows 7 all the way over to the far right of the taskbar.)

For this group of users, the following tip will come in handy.

Adding Flip 3D to the Taskbar

As you already know, the new Windows taskbar lets you pin your frequently used applications to its interface for quick launching. Since Flip 3D is essentially just an application, the same can be done with it, too. Just follow these steps (courtesy of Windows7News):

1. Right-click on your desktop, select New, and then select Shortcut.

2. In the location field, type C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe dwmapi #105 (assuming that Windows is installed on C:)

3. Click Next, and then type Window Switcher for the shortcut name, then press Finish.

4. Right-click on the Window Switcher shortcut that you just created and then click on Properties.

5. Click on the Change Icon… button.

6. In the Look for icons in this file field type %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\imageres.dll, and then press Enter.

7. Select the first icon and then click on OK.

8. Click on OK to dismiss the properties dialog.

9. Drag the Window Switcher shortcut from your desktop onto the taskbar.

Note: Flip 3D will only work if Aero is enabled.

How to Disable InPrivate Mode in IE8

Sarah Perez — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:35:00 GMT

InPrivate mode in Internet Explorer 8 is the new feature that allows a web user to surf anonymously, leaving no traces of their activity behind. Designed for privacy conscious users, surfing in InPrivate leaves no record of sites visited in your Internet History and it erases any cookies, URLs visited, usernames and passwords, and temporary internet files that would normally accumulate during a browsing session.

However, there are some people who would probably like to shut of InPrivate mode for good. Parents, for example, may not want their children to have access to this feature. Also, in an enterprise setting, I.T. administrators may want to restrict their users from going “InPrivate,” especially in companies where all internet communication has to be recorded for legal purposes.

To disable the setting, it’s as simple as making a change to the registry key located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Privacy\EnableInPrivateMode.

When enabled (the default), the dword value is set to 00000001. To disable InPrivate mode, just change that last “1” to a “0” as in 00000000.

On some systems that key may not exist, so you’ll need to first create it. To do so, follow these instructions (courtesy of Grand Stream Dreams):

Logon to your machine with an account that has administrative rights.
Right-click on your desktop and select "New"..."Text Document".
Rename it to something like "IE8SafeMode.reg" (Note: change the file extension from .txt to .reg)
Save the change and tell Windows you know you changed the file extension name.
Right-click on the file you just made and select "Edit". It should open in notepad.
Copy the following text (all three lines) and paste it into that Notepad file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Privacy]
"EnableInPrivateBrowsing"=dword:00000000
Save the file and then close it.
When you double-click the file it will ask you if you want to add those changes into the Registry. Select Yes.
Then reopen IE8 and you should now have InPrivate mode disabled.

Bing Wallpaper Tricks

Sarah Perez — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:29:00 GMT

I just read a blog post by Steve Clayton that pointed out a little feature I had overlooked in the new Bing.com – a wallpaper changer. It’s a small thing, but it’s kind of fun. In the bottom-right corner of the Bing.com homepage, you’ll see two arrows that let you scroll through the previous wallpapers featured on the site. Since Bing changes its wallpaper every day, there’s sure to be some great images you missed. Now if there was only an easy way to make the Bing wallpaper my desktop wallpaper, I’d be thrilled! In the meantime, though, there is a way to get to the URL of the image – it’s just not that easy. First, you first have to go to “View Source” in your web browser. Then do a search for the “g_img” (without the quotes.) Here, I found a funny-looking URL. I’m not a developer, so I wasn’t sure what it meant. For example, today’s URL found in the code was: '\/fd\/hpk2\/CinqueTerre_EN-US2206014527.jpg. Obviously, that’s not a normal-looking URL. I knew I was close though, so I experimented with the URL and ended up with one that worked: http://www.bing.com/hpk2/CinqueTerre_EN-US2206014527.jpg. You can compare the two URLs to see how I got there. Unfortunately, the image isn’t the ideal size for a desktop background (at least on my PC) but Windows can still make it work – you’ll just lose a bit of the image in the process when it’s centered on your screen.

Block Ads Using IE8

Sarah Perez — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:39:00 GMT

I have to admit, I didn’t even realize that IE8 had an ad-blocking feature until I read this. The feature is kind of tucked away and hidden within the InPrivate Settings – the new option which lets you surf anonymously leaving no traces, no cookies, no history, etc. behind.

Thanks to a user on the DSL Reports forum, there’s now a list of the sites that the Firefox extension Adblock Plus uses which can now be imported into IE8 in order to block ads there, too. Here’s how to set it up:

In IE8, go to Access Tool –> InPrivate Filtering Settings from the toolbar menu.
Click on the “Advanced Settings” link at the bottom left of the window.
Click “Import” to import the XML file you first downloaded from here (That’s a zip file – you need to extract it first).
You’ll get a message that the import worked and you’ll just click “OK.”
You can close the open dialog boxes now – you’re done!

After doing this, the ads associated with the URLs you imported will be automatically blocked in IE.

Note: this applies the publicly available download of IE8, not the one pre-installed on Windows 7 Beta.

Thanks, gHacks, for the tip.

Reorganize the Position of IE8 Accelerators

Sarah Perez — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:24:00 GMT

If you’ve been busy adding IE8 Accelerators to IE’s right-click menu, you may already be wondering if there’s an easy way to organize them to put your most frequently used ones at the top of the menu. As it turns out, there is. Thanks to this handy tip from Ian Moulster, this is how it’s done:

Steps

Go to IE8’s “Tools” menu and choose “Manage Add-ons”
Click on “Accelerator” in the left hand pane, then find the one you’re interested in moving. (Notice that it is currently shown as “enabled”. The choices here are “enabled” or “default”. Anything set as “default” will appear on the initial list of accelerators shown when you highlight text on a webpage and click the accelerator icon.)
Highlight the accelerator you want and click “set as default”.

That’s it! Doing this will move the Accelerator from appearing further down in the menu and instead moves it up to the top where the other default Accelerators live.

Great tip - thanks, Ian!

Automatically Organize Your Movie Collection

Sarah Perez — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:47:00 GMT

If you’re a Media Center PC user with a large movie collection, you’ll want to go grab this small .bat file created by Jon from thehtpc.net. The file will organize your messy, unorganized movie collection for you automatically – all you have to do is click. To use the file, just place it into your Movies folder (or whichever folder you keep your movies in). If there are any files you don’t want it to effect, make them hidden before you start. You can change them back later. Then just double-click the bat file. It will organize all your movies into newly created movie folders with proper names which makes them much better for viewing in Media Center.

Don’t you just love things that automate tedious tasks? I sure do. Thanks Jon!

(via hack7mc)

Mimic Windows 7 Federated Search in Vista

Sarah Perez — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:46:00 GMT

A member of the WinVistaClub.com forums recently posted a great tip for mimicking (sort of) the Federated Search Connector functionality found in Windows 7 on your Windows XP/Vista PC.

In case you don’t know, Federated Search is a new feature of Windows 7 that lets you search internet web sites from within an Explorer window. There are a lot of really cool Search Connectors which you can add to your computer like this Flickr connector or this Twitter one. You can make your own by following the instructions here.

Anyway, while you can’t really have true Federated Search outside of Windows 7, you can mimic the functionality by using the Search Provider feature in Internet Explorer. To do so, the forum post suggests the following steps:

1. Go to the site you want to create the Search Connector for. Example: deviantart.com
2. Now in DevArt, search for “TEST” (all caps)
3. Copy the URL to the clipboard & then head over here.
4. Paste the URL in ‘Step 3’
5. Type DevArt in ‘Step 4’
6. Install

You’ll then have a Search Connector just for that particular web site. You can do this for any site where you can do a search for the word “TEST” (without quotes) using their search box then pasting the URL in ‘Step 3.’ It’s not Federated Search, but it is a pretty good tip – and one IE users on Windows 7 can use too.

How to Put Folders on Your Windows 7 Taskbar

Sarah Perez — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:19:00 GMT

In previous versions of Windows, some people dragged folders to their Quick Launch bar for easy access. Now that Quick Launch has been replaced by the Windows 7 taskbar, how can this be done? The answer is simple – use the “Links” toolbar instead. To pin multiple folders to the taskbar, you only need to right-click on the taskbar, open the Toolbars menu and check the “Links” entry. Then you can open a Windows Explorer window and drag the folder to the Links bar. Doing this adds a shortcut to that folder which you can easily access from the taskbar. Don’t forget, if you want to expand the Links toolbar and give it more room on the taskbar, you need to right-click and unlock the toolbar first in order to move it around. (By the way, this is an easy way to add the Recycle Bin to the Taskbar!)

Tip: Auto-Login Your Windows 7 User Account

Sarah Perez — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:27:00 GMT

Although I don’t personally recommend this, there are some people out there who don’t want to bother with using a password to protect their Windows user account. Of course, using a password in Windows isn’t required, only suggested. But even if you don’t fill one in, you still have to click your user icon to start the login process.

An easier way - although again much less secure - is to enable auto-logins for your Windows PC. This is possible in Windows 7, as it was in prior versions, but it takes a little finagling to do so. (And for good reason, darn it.)

Still, if you must do this, here’s how:

Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to launch the “Run” dialog box.
Type in control userpasswords2
Press Enter. The User Accounts window will display.
Uncheck the option “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer”
Click “OK”
You will then be prompted to enter the current password and confirm it.
After doing so, you will no longer be prompted to enter your password upon login.

Use this tip at your own risk!

Hack: Windows 7 “System Launcher”

Sarah Perez — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:27:00 GMT

Mike Halsey just came up with an ingenious way to add system icons like the Control Panel, Recycle Bin, Devices and Printers, and more to the new Windows 7 taskbar, all while keeping them separate from the other icons already docked there.

Mike’s hack builds off of the WinVistaClub forum tip about how to add the quick launch toolbar back into Windows 7 . The end results of the hack look like this (click for image).

Here’s how you do it:

Open an explorer window and navigate to %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
Hit the Alt button then go to the View menu in the toolbar that appears (that’s actually another great tip in and of itself – Alt displays the classic Explorer menu!)
In the View menu, temporarily change the settings for Show hidden files… and Hide Protected Operating System files.
Create a new folder called System Launch.
Change the security privileges on this folder: Right- click on it and select Properties. Go to the Security tab on the window that appears and you’ll see the Everyone user group selected. Press the Edit button and give this user group full-control. Press Apply then OK.
Now click anywhere in a blank space on the taskbar and select Toolbars and New Toolbar.
In the window that appears navigate to %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
Select your System Launch folder and press the Select Folder button.
When this new toolbar appears, you can unlock the taskbar and drag it to where you want and drag and drop any icons you want in it. You can also right click in it and un-tick the options Show Text and Show Title and change the icon size from small to large. (Toolbar needs to be unlocked to see those options).

That’s a really great tip, Mike, thanks for sharing it!

Windows 7 Secret Send To Menu

Sarah Perez — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:53:00 GMT

The How-to-Geek stumbled across a hidden menu in the beta version of Windows 7: the expanded “Send To” menu. As you already know, when you right-click on any item, one of the options that displays is the “Send To” menu. In Windows 7, you can choose to send that item to a Compressed (Zipped) Folder, your Desktop (create shortcut), Fax or Mail Recipients, or to your CD/DVD drive. However, when you hold down the SHIFT key and right-click, a whole new menu appears with a lot more options.

The expanded menu includes all of your User folders like Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, Links, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, Saved Games, and Searches.

Here’s an extra tip, too: to add any items to your regular “Send To” menu, type shell:sendto and then drag shortcuts to the folder which appears.

Thanks, How-to-Geek!

Change Your Start Button’s Actions in Windows 7

Sarah Perez — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:21:00 GMT

In Windows Vista, you had to go through a lot of steps to change the default settings for the Windows Start button, but in Windows 7, changing its behavior is easy. If you want to be able to click on “Start” and then choose “Sleep” or “Hiberate” instead of “Shut Down,” (or vice versa) you can make that change right from the Taskbar with very little effort on your part. To make the adjustment, just right-click on the Taskbar and select “Properties.” Then click on the “Start Menu” tab and choose your desired action from the drop-down list provided. Click “OK” and you’re done! A simple change and so incredibly easy – just the way I like it.

How To Speed Up Vista Boot Time on Dual-Core PCs

Sarah Perez — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:04:00 GMT

Peter Provost posted a handy tip on his blog the other day that will be useful for anyone with a Vista computer that has a dual-core CPU. In Windows Vista, there’s a setting that lets you configure your PC to use both cores upon booting up (by default, it only uses one). You can change this setting in the System Configuration menu to get your PC to boot faster. Here’s how:

Go to Start, type msconfig and hit [Enter]
In the System Configuration Window, select the Boot tab
Click on Advanced Options
In the BOOT Advanced Options dialog, check the "Number of processors" check box, and choose 2 (or 4 if you have quad core) for the number of processors.
Click OK twice

That’s it! Now your Vista PC will boot up using both CPUs!

Make Your PC Wake From Sleep Automatically

Sarah Perez — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:46:00 GMT

A lot of people these days are becoming more aware of the energy savings to be had by shutting down unused equipment when it’s not in use. And while it’s no problem to shut off the TV and the end of the evening a lot of people have trouble doing the same for the PC. This is mainly because it’s nice to have all your work on your computer right there where you left it when you return in the morning. Of course, this is what “sleep” mode is for – you can save energy without losing your place.

But wouldn’t it be nice if your computer knew when to wake up for you? Well, it can! Using the Task Scheduler (In Vista: Control Panel\System and Maintenance\Administrative Tools\Task Scheduler), you can make your PC wake up at the designated time you want just by having it run a simple task – like say, launching then closing the command prompt window.

For example:

Schedule a task that executes the command cmd.exe with command line arguments [/c “exit”] (without the []) and make sure to set the ‘Wake computer up to execute this task’ in the power options. Schedule the task for when you want your computer to wake up and you will never have to wait on it again.

(Thanks to Thomas Delrue for this tip!)

5 Microsoft Office Ribbon Tweaks You May Not Have Known

Sarah Perez — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:00 GMT

Thanks to some internal emails that were going around recently, we’ve discovered some great Microsoft Office ribbon tweaks, tips, and customizations. I’ll confess, I hadn’t known about all of these, but they certainly are handy:

Hide the Ribbon: To hide the ribbon out of view leaving only the tab names showing, just double-click on any tab’s name.
Customize the Quick Access Toolbar: By default, the Quick Access Toolbar has the “Save,” “Undo,” and “Redo” buttons on it, but you can change that. To do so, go to any tab and right-click on the little pull-down menu symbol next to the window title on any Ribbon app. Here, you have the option to click on “Customize Quick Access Toolbar.” From the menu that displays, you can add and remove commands from the Quick Access Toolbar to suit your preferences. Add your most frequently used commands and you can hide the ribbon to get more screen real estate without losing access to the commands you use the most.
Find Hidden Commands: Because the Ribbon is meant to bring more simplicity to working with Office software, there are some infrequently used commands that are not available on the ribbon or are just harder to find. To bring these back into view, follow the steps above in #2 to customize the Quick Access Toolbar and you can get access to these commands once again. A couple examples of hidden commands include Excel’s pop-up calculator and PowerPoint’s Advanced Document Properties, which lets you see how big the file is.
Customize the Quick Access Toolbar on the Fly: No need to hunt down the little right-click menu, though, you can just right-click any command on the ribbon and choose “Add to Quick Access Toolbar.”
Scroll Through Tabs With a Mouse Wheel: If you have a mouse with a wheel, you can scroll through the tabs if the cursor is over the Ribbon – very useful for quick switching.

We would like to thank both Steven Levy and Alex Babanov for these great tips!

Media Center University – Part 2

Brian Johnson — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:44:00 GMT

Check out the CE Installer Blog, where Mike Seamons continues his presentation of Optimizing Media Center for Entertainment. In this installment, Mike discusses the steps he takes to optimize Windows Media Center. He discusses removing all unnecessary software, installing Windows Updates and other configuration. Additionally, he discusses how to integrate Zune with WMC.

Topics covered include:

Removing all Unnecessary Files

Network and Sharing Tips

Cleaning the Desktop

Setting the Resolution, sounds, and screen saver

Setting Up Windows Media Player

Syncing everything with Zune

Default Content Removal

PCWorld Tells You How To Do Everything Faster

Sarah Perez — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:05:00 GMT

A new article over at PCWorld.com offers up 22 tips on more efficient ways to perform common tech tasks - things like reinstalling Windows, backing up your data, creating a podcast, making a web site, sharing photos, and more. Here are a few sample tips from the article:

Add a Folder to Your Favorites: Drag the beloved folder from Windows Explorer to the Start button, and from there to the Favorites menu. In Windows XP, you also have the option of opening the folder and then clicking Favorites, Add to Favorites from inside the Explorer window.

Fix a Photo's Exposure: Microsoft's Windows Live Photo Gallery app improves on Vista's Photo Gallery program. Select Fix, Adjust Exposure In Windows Live Photo Gallery (which runs in both Vista and XP), and you'll get both Highlights and Shadows sliders and a histogram, as well as the familiar old Brightness and Contrast options.

Read the News: A number of free services can send you RSS feeds over e-mail. My favorite is SendMeRSS.com, which is so easy that you don't even have to register with the site, although doing so will make adding feeds simpler. Just enter the URL for the RSS feed you want, type in your e-mail address, and click Feed. From then on, new items will automatically appear in your inbox.

Email Large Files: My rule of thumb: Never e-mail more than 1MB of content without the express permission of the recipient. As an alternative, try YouSendIt, a brain-dead-simple take on the FTP transfer. The service is free for any file under 100MB, and individual files can be downloaded up to 100 times. You don't even have to sign up and enter a password (though the service offers additional features if you do, and even more if you pay). Just enter both e-mail addresses, point to the file, and click the Send button.

There are eighteen other great tips like those above, so you're sure to discover some tip, idea, or software app to use that you didn't already know about before.

Customizing Vista's Search

Sarah Perez — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:49:00 GMT

Remember how I told you that you could add Wikipedia to your choices in Windows Vista's default search? Well, there are other ones you can add, too, like these:

Live Search: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=%+

IMDB: http://search.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=%+

Dictionary Search: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=%+

Now what I need to know is how I can use all of them - the gpedit.msc section (see earlier instructions on this) only lets you pick one. I want them all! Any ideas?

MSN Environment Launched

Sarah Perez — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:59:00 GMT

For eco-warriors and environmentalists, there's a new channel on MSN that will be of interest: MSN Environment. On this site, you can read news and blogs, watch videos, get eco-friendly tips, plus get access to tools like a carbon calculator and a water usage meter. The site is only on MSN UK (for the U.S., we have MSN Green instead), but there are certainly features on the site that will appeal to everyone interested in these issues.

If you want to follow various sections of MSN Environment, there are several RSS feeds to choose from, including:

Environment Blog: Matthew Yeomans is the co-founder of Custom Communication an online media consultancy that provides environmental reporting. He reports for MSN on The Climate Report blog.
Environment Features: All the feature stories from MSN Environment Editor including analysis.
Environment Photos: All the photo stories from MSN Environment Editor including analysis.
Environment News: Updated throughout the day with breaking and feature news stories
Environment Videos: Stand alone features from VideoJug
Green Living : Reports on Green Living

(via vnunet)

Office 2007 "Legacy" Mode

Sarah Perez — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:40:00 GMT

No, it's not really a secret setting. It's an add-in for Office 2007 that will finally give IT admins relief from that one user who resists change in all possible forms. The one that reminds you every day that how they had everything the way they liked it in Office 2003 and why did you have to go and change it on them? Who cares that Office 2007 offers awesome new features, they want it to be exactly the same. Had enough? Just download the Ribbon Customizer, an Office add-in that is available in a free starter edition or a paid Professional Edition. Using the tool's built in "Classic UI Tabs" you can turn back time and make Office 2007's ribbon turn into Office 2003's classic look.

However, it would be wrong if I didn't mention that Ribbon Customizer can do a lot more than just enabling a legacy mode of sorts - the tool can also be used for redesigning the Office 2007 ribbon UI in any way you see fit. You can add, remove, and edit tabs, reorder them, create groups, move commands around, make customized tabs you can turn on and off, and much more. The Ribbon Customizer is available here if you want to download and try it for yourself.

(via Aaron Tiensivu)

Find Cheaper Gas on MSN

Sarah Perez — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:38:00 GMT

The price of gasoline just seems to be going up and up and up, but there are online tools to help you find the lowest prices in your area. One of these tools is available right from MSN Auto. On the gas prices page, MSN Auto displays the prices for gas in your zip code by using data that is updated daily via the Oil Pricing Information Service (OPIS). More than 90,000 stations across the country are covered so you can find the best prices. (via Click)

ShareMaster Gadget for WHS

Sarah Perez — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:45:00 GMT

The Home Server Hacks blog has just announced a new Windows Vista Sidebar gadget just for Windows Home Server users. This gadget, called "ShareMaster for Home Server," gives you quick access to the Windows Home Server's standard shared folders (Music, Photos, Public, Software, Users and Videos). The gadget has six icons on it that correspond to those six shared folders on the server. Clicking an icon on the gadget will open up that network shared folder. What's even cooler, though, is that you can drag and drop files onto the icons themselves to automatically move them from your PC to your Home Server. That's handy! This is definitely a must-have tool for any Windows Home Server owners. You can download the gadget from here. (image via Home Server Hacks)

Search Wikipedia from Vista's Start Menu

Sarah Perez — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:48:00 GMT

If you're a fan of Wikipedia, you're going to love this Windows Vista hack I found on ITworld.com. You can add a "Search Wikipedia" option from the Vista's Instant Search box that's on your Windows start menu. It's really not that hard, if you are familiar with using the Local Policy editor. Here are the steps:

Press Windows Key + R and type in gpedit.msc, click "OK"
Open the User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Instant Search\Custom Instant Search Internet Search provider policy setting.
Enable the policy setting, type Search Wikipedia in the first textbox and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%w in the second textbox, and click OK.
Open a command prompt and type gpupdate/force to immediately apply the new policy setting.

After you do that, you'll see 3 search options: in addition to "Search Everywhere" and "Search the Internet", you'll now see "Search Wikipdedia," too! How cool is that?

This probably works for all languages, if you substitute "en" with your country's code.

Tip - Make Command Line Easier to Read

Sarah Perez — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:31:00 GMT

I just saw this tip for developers over on the IEBlog, but I think it's safe to say that is handy for anyone who uses command line whether they are developers, net admins, or just your average geek. The tip involves how to turn on the Consolas font, a ClearType font) for use in the CMD.EXE window. You don't get as many lines on a screen, but this font is much easier to read. Make the change is really not too hard, just follow these steps below:

Launch the command prompt (in Vista, launch it with elevated privileges)
Type in the command window: reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont" /v 00 /d Consolas
Logoff
When you log back in, Consolas will be an option in the “Command Prompt” Properties for you to choose.

The IEBlog has screenshots showing the before and after so you can see what a difference this makes. Save your eyes and make the switch!