Latest How-Tos
These are the last 40 featured how-to articles on How-To Geek. If you want to stay up to date, you should subscribe to the latest articles feed.
How to Regain Access to Your Administrator Account in Windows Vista using System Restore
Probably one of the most frustrating things that can happen to you in Windows is not being able to logon to your user account because you changed the password and then forgot it or because you accidentally deleted the account. If you don't know the password for any other Administrator account, you have a big problem!
How to Patch Windows Vista to Enable Custom Themes (Visual Styles)
Have you ever wondered why Windows Vista allows you to choose themes, but there's no way to add custom themes without additional software? The reason is because Windows checks the themes with a cryptographic key, so you have to patch windows to allow custom-created themes to install.
Change How Often System Restore Creates Restore Points in Windows Vista
System Restore is one of the better features in Windows Vista... spend any amount of time on our forums and you'll see how often it solves issues... but it's like a black box, nobody knows how it really works, or when it's doing things. So how do you change when it creates snapshots?
Fixing Annoyances: Stop Windows from Copying Files Accidentally When Ctrl-Click Selecting
Have you ever tried to select a bunch of files in Windows Explorer while holding down the Ctrl key, and then all of a sudden there are duplicate copies of all of those files sitting in the folder? Really irritating, so how do we fix it?
Fix for When Clock, Volume, Power or Network Icons are Missing and Grayed Out in Windows Vista
So you notice you are missing icons in the System Tray, like the clock or volume icons, and then you realize that you simply can't enable them because the checkboxes are grayed out. So what do you do?
See Task Type at a Glance by Adding the Icon Column to the Outlook 2007 To-Do Bar
Have you ever noticed that the To-Do bar in Outlook 2007 doesn't show you what type of item is in the list? It could be a task or a flagged email, but which one is it? With a simple tweak you can add the icon column to easily differentiate them.
Mysticgeek Blog: Completely Uninstall Programs And More With Revo Uninstaller
Don't you hate it when you try to uninstall a program and it either does not include an uninstaller or when using Add / Remove Programs in Windows, there are several traces of the software left?
Set Automatic Defrag Options for All Drives in Vista Service Pack 1
By now most people have likely already upgraded to Windows Vista Service Pack 1, but one of the smaller feature upgrades might have passed most people by: You can now configure automatic defragmenting for All drives, as well as defragment all of your drives at the same time.
Why Does My Windows Vista Explorer Send To Menu Hang or Open Slowly?
Have you ever noticed that the Send To context menu can be ridiculously slow to open sometimes? You right-click a file and choose Send To, and then have to wait for about 30 seconds for explorer to respond again. Annoying! so how do we fix it?
Stop Hitting Snooze: Change the Default Reminder Time for Outlook Appointments
How many times has the Outlook reminder popped up on your screen only for you to hit the Snooze button to be reminded again in 5 minutes. How can you possibly be productive while hitting the snooze button repeatedly throughout the day?
Restore Your Missing/Deleted Smart Bookmarks Folder in Firefox 3
If you've started using the beta of Firefox 3, you've probably already seen the new Smart Bookmarks folder that is created by default. This folder can be useful for looking up sites you just visited or bookmarked... but how do you get it back if you accidentally deleted it?
Troubleshooting Internet Explorer on Vista Locking Up or Running Slowly
If you are having issues with Internet Explorer running extremely slow, crashing, locking up, or just generally behaving badly, there are a couple of troubleshooting steps that you can follow to likely fix the problem. And no, I'm not going to just tell you to install Firefox.
My Vista Aero Glass Turned Itself Off, How Do I Enable it Again?
A reader wrote in yesterday asking why she no longer had the "pretty" glass windows, and how to get them back. It occurred to me that there might be other people with the same issue, so I'm writing up the (fairly simple) instructions for others that might have the same question.
Make Firefox 3 Use Windows Vista Glass Like Internet Explorer Does
One of the things that has really annoyed me about running Firefox on Vista is that Internet Explorer looks really slick with the Aero Glass extending down onto the entire navigation bar... and Firefox just looks pathetic sitting next to it. Thanks to the Glasser extension from my new favorite person 6XGate, IE no longer holds the edge in slick UI.
Make Windows Vista Explorer Preview Pane Work for More File Types
Have you ever noticed that many files don't seem to work in the Preview Pane in Windows Vista's Explorer? Until recently the only way to work around this was a painful registry hack... but now there's a utility that will let you easily add file types to the preview list.
Keyboard Ninja Beginner: Using Hotkeys the Easy Way in Windows
If you've been a reader of this site for any amount of time, you are probably familiar with the Keyboard Ninja concept... we like to feature all sorts of ways to quickly access applications or functions with complicated shortcut keys. But what about regular people? Isn't there a simpler solution?
Stupid Geek Tricks: Find Messages Quickly Without Searching in Outlook
After watching the project manager at work scroll painfully through 10,000 messages in her inbox trying to find one from the right sender, it occurred to me that a lot of people don't realize how easily you can use the keyboard to find a message in a sorted list.
Create a Query in Microsoft Access to Find Duplicate Entries in a Table
Running into duplicate data in an Access Database can be quite annoying during the hectic workday, so I decided to write up a technique to help identify the duplicate records so you can manually handle them.
Keyboard Ninja: Pop Up the Vista Calendar with a Single Hotkey
We've covered how to access the Windows Vista Calendar using the keyboard, but what if you wanted to assign a single keystroke to pop up the calendar? Yeah, sure, you can just click it with the mouse, but where's the geek fun in that?
Customizing Your Icons in Windows XP
My new friend Sue asked me the other day how to customize icons on Windows XP, so I thought I'd write up all the ways to change the icons, both by using the built-in methods and also with additional software.
Boost Your Mouse Pointing Accuracy in Windows
Whether you are doing graphics/web design work or just taking screenshots, it's often very difficult to move the mouse precisely enough to select pixels the way you'd like, so I went looking for a solution.
Dealing With Windows Vista Explorer Screwing Up Auto-Detection of Folder Types
One of the few things about Vista that just drives me crazy is the problems with Windows Explorer. I prefer to use Details mode for certain folders, but it seems like Vista constantly "decides" that the folder should show a different set of columns than what I had previously chosen.
Hide That Annoying Google Experimental Search Survey Box (in Firefox)
If you've opted into one of the Google Experimental Search programs like the keyboard shortcuts experiment, you've probably seen the annoying survey box that doesn't seem to go away, even after you take the survey. Good thing Firefox is customizable, so we can easily remove it with a Stylish script.
Stupid Geek Tricks: Select Multiple Windows on the Taskbar
If you are like me, you probably have dozens of windows open at any given point, so if you want to tile just a couple of windows you have to minimize everything and then show two of the windows, and then tile them... so how do we just quickly select two taskbar buttons together?
Friday Fun: How-To Videos Galore!
Have you ever wondered about the best way to find interesting how-to videos? (Yeah, I haven't either) Like most people, I would have just searched Youtube or Google, but there's a much quicker way to find all the how-to videos you could ever imagine...
Create a Shortcut to Delete Recent Items in Windows Vista (or XP's) Start Menu
Have you ever tried going through all of the menus required to delete the Recent Items in the Start Menu? It takes forever, especially when you want to hide whatever you shouldn't have been doing. As usual, there's a simpler way to do it.
Easily Summarize A Word 2007 Document
AutoSummarize is a feature in Word 2007 that scores the document by giving points to sentences that contain frequently used words. You can then use the highest scoring sentences to create the summary or use the Auto function.
Skip the Annoying "Use the Web service to find the correct program" Dialog
If you've used Windows for any length of time, you've likely tried to open a file with an unknown extension. Instead of getting a list of programs to open the file with, you get an annoying dialog asking you to use a web service to find a program. So how do we change this?
Disable That Irritating AutoScroll Feature in Firefox
So you try to middle click on a link on a page and miss the link... then the round "Auto Scroll" icon shows up and suddenly the page is moving around and scrolling all by itself. It drives me crazy, so when it was mentioned in the latest Coding Horror article I figured I would write it up in case anybody else wants to disable it.
Finding Registry Keys the Easy Way in Vista or XP
If you are a frequent reader of this site, you've seen your share of registry hacks. Today I'm going to detail how you can easily find the registry keys we mention, and even create a shortcut or hotkey to immediately drill down to the correct key by copying it to the clipboard.
Auto-Hide Your Cluttered Firefox Status Bar Items
One of the reasons that I love Firefox is the dozens of extensions that I have installed to customize the browser, but it seems like every extension includes another icon or widget, and by this point the status bar looks like an instrument panel... so how can I make them hide until I need them?
Make Your Windows XP Logon Screen Look Like Windows Vista
Have you ever wondered how to change the default Windows XP logon screen? Today I got the crazy idea to figure out how to make it look like Windows Vista instead, so I'm writing that up for you.
Speed Up Network File Copying While Playing Audio in Windows Vista SP1
Windows Vista restricts network traffic to 10 packets per millisecond while playing multimedia to prevent skipping. Unfortunately this causes network speed to be pitiful on a gigabit network, especially during file copies over the network.
Force Windows to Boot Into Safe Mode Without Using the F8 Key
So you are reading instructions on some article that tells you to reboot into Safe mode. You ask how you do that, and are told to use the F8 key when the computer boots up. But you just can't seem to get the F8 key to work... so how do you boot into Safe mode?
Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Eject the CD/DVD Drive
After writing articles about how to open the Safely Remove dialog as well as eject a specific USB drive, some readers contacted me asking me to write about how to eject a CD or DVD drive instead, so I'm covering that here.
What Can You Really Expect from Windows Vista Service Pack 1?
You've already heard the news: Microsoft released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 yesterday. So what does that mean for me, and how do I install it again?
Reload the Gnome or KDE Panels Without Restarting (Linux)
If you do a lot of tweaking to the panels in Gnome or KDE, you've probably run into an instance where you enabled a plugin or changed a setting and need to restart to see the effect (or maybe you locked something up). Instead of logging out or rebooting, we'll just reload the process.
Stupid Geek Tricks: Navigate in the File Open/Save Dialog With the Keyboard
Sometimes in the life of a geek, we do something in front of a non-geek that shocks and amazes them. Sometimes it's as simple as typing three keystrokes into a file open dialog. (At least it was for me yesterday)
Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Immediately Eject a Specific USB Drive
After writing yesterday's article about creating a shortcut to the Safely Remove Hardware dialog, a number of readers mentioned to me that they'd like create a shortcut to immediately eject a specific drive, so we'll cover that here.
Create a Shortcut or Hotkey for the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog
If you often use removable USB devices like a flash drive, you are probably already familiar with the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon that sits in the system tray. The problem for many people is that the icon is tiny, and clicking it just right to bring up the menu is a pain. Can't we just make a shortcut to bring up the dialog?
