How to Prevent Windows Live Messenger from Starting When Windows Starts
By default, Windows Live Messenger starts when Windows does. If you don’t use it on a frequent basis, you are wasting resources by having it run when you don’t need it.
1. Open Windows Live Messenger and login.
2. Next to your name, at the top, click the downward pointing arrow.
3. Select Options.
4. Select General from the left pane of the Options window.
5. Under Sign In, uncheck the Automatically run Windows Live Messenger when I log on to Windows checkbox.
6. Click OK.
Friday, January 2, 2009
How to Add Google Calendar to the Vista Windows Calendar
How to Add Google Calendar to the Vista Windows Calendar
This is a quick recipe on how to get your Google Calendar to show up in Windows Calendar in Vista. You won’t be able to make changes to the calender however you can set update interval to automatically update it via the Google Calendar webpage. Nice for when you need your Google Calendar offline on a laptop/tablet pc.
1. Login to your Google Calendar in your web browser. Then click on the Settings link in the upper right.
Then click on the Calendars tab and then the calendar you want to have show in Windows Calendar. (ie Testing for TechRX)
2. Now, go to the bottom of the Calendar Details tab and under the “Private Address” area, click on the ICAL button.
Once you do, you will get a pop-up w/a URL to a .ics file. Right-click on the link and choose Copy. You can click OK to the popup.
3. Open up Windows Calendar in the Vista Start Menu.
4. Go to Tools > Subscribe.
You will then get a dialog box asking for the url of the web calendar to subscribe to. Right-click in the box and paste the url (or hit CTRL+V) and hit Next.
After it connects and subscribes, you will see a dialog box that you can enter in the name of the calendar, the update interval and whether to also receive reminders and tasks and then hit Finish.
You should now see your google calendar in Vista’s Windows Calendar.
It should automatically update at the interval set when we subscribed.
You can change this by: going to View > Details Pane (will give you interval options in the details pane when you click on the calendar).
NOTE: you CANNOT add calendar items to your Google Calendar with Windows Calendar since we are only subscribed to the web calendar, you will need to add appointments/meetings/tasks via the Google Calendar webpage.
This is a quick recipe on how to get your Google Calendar to show up in Windows Calendar in Vista. You won’t be able to make changes to the calender however you can set update interval to automatically update it via the Google Calendar webpage. Nice for when you need your Google Calendar offline on a laptop/tablet pc.
1. Login to your Google Calendar in your web browser. Then click on the Settings link in the upper right.
Then click on the Calendars tab and then the calendar you want to have show in Windows Calendar. (ie Testing for TechRX)
2. Now, go to the bottom of the Calendar Details tab and under the “Private Address” area, click on the ICAL button.
Once you do, you will get a pop-up w/a URL to a .ics file. Right-click on the link and choose Copy. You can click OK to the popup.
3. Open up Windows Calendar in the Vista Start Menu.
4. Go to Tools > Subscribe.
You will then get a dialog box asking for the url of the web calendar to subscribe to. Right-click in the box and paste the url (or hit CTRL+V) and hit Next.
After it connects and subscribes, you will see a dialog box that you can enter in the name of the calendar, the update interval and whether to also receive reminders and tasks and then hit Finish.
You should now see your google calendar in Vista’s Windows Calendar.
It should automatically update at the interval set when we subscribed.
You can change this by: going to View > Details Pane (will give you interval options in the details pane when you click on the calendar).
NOTE: you CANNOT add calendar items to your Google Calendar with Windows Calendar since we are only subscribed to the web calendar, you will need to add appointments/meetings/tasks via the Google Calendar webpage.
How to Set Disk Space Quota in Windows Vista
How to Set Disk Space Quota in Windows Vista
If you have many users that use one computer, it is quite likely that one of those people will be a disk space hog. The administrator can limit maximum disk space usage by setting a quota.
**Must be have administrator privileges!**
1. Go to Computer
2. Right Click a drive (Usually C:\) and click Properties
3. Go to the Quota tab
4. Click the button that says Show Quota Settings
5. Check the box that says Enable Quota Management
6. Also check the box that says Deny disk space to users exceeding limit
7. Click the radio button saying Disk Space to and set the maximum disk space for users.
8. You can edit some of the other settings if you want to fine tune your choices. Just click Apply when you are done.
If you have many users that use one computer, it is quite likely that one of those people will be a disk space hog. The administrator can limit maximum disk space usage by setting a quota.
**Must be have administrator privileges!**
1. Go to Computer
2. Right Click a drive (Usually C:\) and click Properties
3. Go to the Quota tab
4. Click the button that says Show Quota Settings
5. Check the box that says Enable Quota Management
6. Also check the box that says Deny disk space to users exceeding limit
7. Click the radio button saying Disk Space to and set the maximum disk space for users.
8. You can edit some of the other settings if you want to fine tune your choices. Just click Apply when you are done.
How to Restore the Default Sidebar Gadgets in Windows Vista
How to Restore the Default Sidebar Gadgets in Windows Vista
Vista comes with some default gadgets for the Windows Sidebar, including clock, calendar, contacts, currency, feed headlines, cpu meter, weather, stocks, notes, slide show and picture puzzle. If you accidentally delete one of the default gadgets and you’re wishing you had it back, follow this Tech-Recipe.
1. Right-click the sidebar, and select Properties.
2. When the Windows Sidebar Properties window appears, go to the Maintenance section and click the Restore gadgets installed with Windows button.
3. Click the OK button.
Vista comes with some default gadgets for the Windows Sidebar, including clock, calendar, contacts, currency, feed headlines, cpu meter, weather, stocks, notes, slide show and picture puzzle. If you accidentally delete one of the default gadgets and you’re wishing you had it back, follow this Tech-Recipe.
1. Right-click the sidebar, and select Properties.
2. When the Windows Sidebar Properties window appears, go to the Maintenance section and click the Restore gadgets installed with Windows button.
3. Click the OK button.
How to Prevent Users from Changing the Display Settings in Windows Vista
How to Prevent Users from Changing the Display Settings in Windows Vista
If you have multiple users on one computer, you might want to prevent them from changing the display settings. By following these steps, you can prevent all users on the computer from changing the screen resolution, refresh rate and color depth as well as the DPI size. This is also great for network admins who want to prevent users from changing these settings on their workstation.
1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following into the new text document:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
\System]
"NoDispSettingsPage"=dword:00000001
3. Save the document as display_settings_nochange.reg.
4. Merge the new file into the registry by right-clicking it, selecting Open With, and finally clicking Registry Editor.
5. Continue through the UAC prompt and confirm that you wish to perform the action.
If you need to restore this functionality, follow these steps:
1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following into the new text document:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
\System]
"NoDispSettingsPage"=dword:00000000
3. Save the document as display_settings_change.reg.
4. Merge the new file into the registry by right-clicking it, selecting Open With, and finally clicking Registry Editor.
5. Continue through the UAC prompt and confirm that you wish to perform the action.
If you have multiple users on one computer, you might want to prevent them from changing the display settings. By following these steps, you can prevent all users on the computer from changing the screen resolution, refresh rate and color depth as well as the DPI size. This is also great for network admins who want to prevent users from changing these settings on their workstation.
1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following into the new text document:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
\System]
"NoDispSettingsPage"=dword:00000001
3. Save the document as display_settings_nochange.reg.
4. Merge the new file into the registry by right-clicking it, selecting Open With, and finally clicking Registry Editor.
5. Continue through the UAC prompt and confirm that you wish to perform the action.
If you need to restore this functionality, follow these steps:
1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following into the new text document:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
\System]
"NoDispSettingsPage"=dword:00000000
3. Save the document as display_settings_change.reg.
4. Merge the new file into the registry by right-clicking it, selecting Open With, and finally clicking Registry Editor.
5. Continue through the UAC prompt and confirm that you wish to perform the action.
How to Use the Task Manager as a Desktop Gadget in Windows Vista
How to Use the Task Manager as a Desktop Gadget in Windows Vista
By now, I’m sure that you’ve become familiar with the Task Manager, using it to end processes and check cpu usage and network activity. Did you know with the double-click of your mouse, you could make the Task Manager look like a nice desktop gadget for monitoring your cpu usage and cpu usage history or your network activity.
1. Open the Task Manager by right-clicking the Taskbar and selecting Task Manager.
2. Select either the Performance tab or the Networking tab (depending on what you wish to monitor).
3. Now double-click anywhere inside the window (not the menu bar).
4. You will now only see the graphical representation for either the CPU Usage or the Networking info. Resize the window to the desired size and reposition it to the desired location on your desktop.
To return the Task Manager to its original look, simply double-click inside the window.
By now, I’m sure that you’ve become familiar with the Task Manager, using it to end processes and check cpu usage and network activity. Did you know with the double-click of your mouse, you could make the Task Manager look like a nice desktop gadget for monitoring your cpu usage and cpu usage history or your network activity.
1. Open the Task Manager by right-clicking the Taskbar and selecting Task Manager.
2. Select either the Performance tab or the Networking tab (depending on what you wish to monitor).
3. Now double-click anywhere inside the window (not the menu bar).
4. You will now only see the graphical representation for either the CPU Usage or the Networking info. Resize the window to the desired size and reposition it to the desired location on your desktop.
To return the Task Manager to its original look, simply double-click inside the window.
Friday, December 26, 2008
How to Make System Tray Based Application in .NET
How to Make System Tray Based Application in .NET
Creating an application that lives in the system tray is easy, but it is not entirely obvious how to do so in Visual Studio. This recipe will show you the steps.
1) First, create a new Windows Application project in Visual Studio.NET. This can be either Visual Basic or C#
2) Drag a Notifyicon control and a ContextMenu control from the toolbox onto the form.
3) Click on the NotifyIcon control that you just added, and set the Icon property to whatever icon you want your application to have.
4) Set the ContextMenu property of the Notifyicon to the context menu that you added to your project.
5) Right click on the Context Menu control, and select Edit. Since this menu will be the right-click menu for your tray icon, you will want to add the items that the user will see. Make sure to add an Exit menu item.
6) Double click the Exit menu item, and add the following code:
this.Close();
7) Now for the important settings. Click on the form, and go to the Properties window. Set the following settings:
FormBorderSize: Fixed Tool Window
WindowState: Minimized
Opacity: 0%
ShowInTaskbar: False
The key thing to remember is that the default form is not to be used for application functionality, it is only used as the hidden background window. If you want to create a new window, you can just add another form to your application.
Creating an application that lives in the system tray is easy, but it is not entirely obvious how to do so in Visual Studio. This recipe will show you the steps.
1) First, create a new Windows Application project in Visual Studio.NET. This can be either Visual Basic or C#
2) Drag a Notifyicon control and a ContextMenu control from the toolbox onto the form.
3) Click on the NotifyIcon control that you just added, and set the Icon property to whatever icon you want your application to have.
4) Set the ContextMenu property of the Notifyicon to the context menu that you added to your project.
5) Right click on the Context Menu control, and select Edit. Since this menu will be the right-click menu for your tray icon, you will want to add the items that the user will see. Make sure to add an Exit menu item.
6) Double click the Exit menu item, and add the following code:
this.Close();
7) Now for the important settings. Click on the form, and go to the Properties window. Set the following settings:
FormBorderSize: Fixed Tool Window
WindowState: Minimized
Opacity: 0%
ShowInTaskbar: False
The key thing to remember is that the default form is not to be used for application functionality, it is only used as the hidden background window. If you want to create a new window, you can just add another form to your application.
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