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Woah! That's so Cool! (and useful, too!)
Every once in awhile I come across a tip that turns out to be far cooler than I thought it was going to be. Today's tip is a great example of that. If your eyesight isn't quite what it used to be, then here's a trick I'd like you to try. It's called “High Contrast” mode.
How do we do this, then?
Press: Left Shift+Left Alt+Print Screen
Got that? A window will pop up, asking you if you'd like to turn this mode on. Go ahead and click “Yes”. Your desktop will undergo a magical transformation. Text will turn white, the background will turn black and you may see things a little clearer than you used to.
If you don't like it, just repeat the key combination and everything will go back to normal. This tip applies to both XP and Vista.
How Dare You!
Have you ever installed a program, and upon your next reboot you discover that there's a new icon in your system tray? When was I given the choice as to whether or not I wanted another icon down there? It's crowded already! I need my space!
The main offender of this is QuickTime. Yeah, it's required for quite a bit of media viewing, but I'm not always going to need it to be resident and taking up memory all the time, am I?
We're going to take care of that today.
First, you'll want to Right-Click the Quicktime icon in your system tray and go to “Quicktime Preferences”. Click on the Advanced tab.
Down near the bottom you'll see a checkbox that says “Install QuickTime icon in the system tray”. Uncheck it.
At'sa Spicy Password!
Without a single doubt, security is the most important thing to keep in mind when using the Internet. Browse only safe sites, be careful what you download, avoid the yellow snow! It's a virtual minefield out there, so I'm going to take the work out of one of the most vulnerable parts of Internet safety. The password.
We're told, that as safe Internet browsers, we are to change our password occasionally to keep the hackers guessing. Well, it does a fine job at keeping me guessing, I'll tell you that much! How may sites do you have separate passwords for? Just Try to remember all of those, plus remember to change them on a regular basis!
Here's a tip: Try incorporating a semi-colon into your existing passwords. It's easy to remember because it's in a prominent place on the keyboard, and it allows you to keep what you already have with a little spice added to it! You can put a semi-colon at the beginning, end, or if you're feeling super-secure, in the middle. Heck, some sites require punctuation in their passwords, so you're killing two birds with one stone! You can remember easily and you're secure! Neat!
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