The Windows shutdown process may be as slow as the start up unfortunately. But, due to Windows amazing ability of user managed settings, you can change that! So, how can you speed up your Windows Shutdown process ? (There have been previous articles – in the WinHack column – on how to Speed Up Windows [...]

The Right-Click menu is one of the most messed with pieces of Windows. If you have installed a large amount of applications, your right-click menu can become quite large and eventually just take way too long to load. Of course, it is possible to remove and add options to the right-click menu. Both of which [...]

I have been saying repetitively how wonderful Windows is. The registry particularly can make customization easy and definitely fun. Today, we will be looking at just a few registry tweaks that can increase your ability to customize Windows to an extreme level. WARNING : BEFORE making any changes to the Windows registry, it is highly [...]

All of the Windows operating systems seem to allow an extreme amount of customization and change based on user desires. Today, we will talk about a small part of that – tweaking the Windows logon/boot. Well, ready to get started? Let’s do it. Messing around with the actual login can be quite fun as well. [...]

Welcome to the second part of “Speed Up Your Computer.” If you haven’t read the first part I highly recommend doing so here. Finished? OK, let’s move onto part two. In the previous article on speeding up Windows, I talked about how to disable unnecessary Microsoft services that could easily slow down your system. Unfortunately yes, [...]

As you use your computer more and more, speed becomes a larger issue. Maybe you’ve downloaded a bunch of unnecessary freeware or you just have used your computer for quite a while – either way, computers gradually become not so fast. But today, I will show you how to speed up that computer of yours [...]

Windows XP is, in my opinion, one of the best operating systems. It is extremely customizable (even if it is not intended to be), compatible with nearly everything, and is quite stable. Here I will show you just one way to customize it, to be precise ‘ how to change windows start button text ‘. [...]

Kwippy is another micro-blogging site that resembles both Twitter, Pownce, and FriendFeed. Kwippy is a convenient and easy way to stay connected with old friends and an even better way to make new friends – the social networking “goal”. If you see a “Kwip” you like, it’s very easy to find out more about the [...]

Zigtag is an awesome social networking, web tagging, digg-type site. The name should give most of it away – Zigtag – tagging being their main purpose. It essentially makes available all of the sites that people thought were cool. Zigtag is currently in private BETA, yet the wonderful folks at Zigtag have given MakeUseOf readers [...]

Wikipedia is definitely one of the world’s most valuable resources. It is used by millions around the world and is a great educational resource for nearly anything. Many sites have been launched due to Wikipedia, and some of them even assist in helping you get a better experience with Wikipedia. With over 2,461,000+ English articles [...]

As we find a need to make thing faster as well as easier, application launchers assist that view. Some may find them products of pure laziness, yet I find them quite helpful. Posts have previously been written on Make Use Of on application launchers such as: Enso Launcher and Launchy, but I will talk about [...]

A large part of the “Web 2.0″ image is social networking. With that is the hopeful ability to make everything accessible in one place. It is somewhat of a “let’s just make it easier for everyone scenario,” but that is what the majority of it is anyway right? Anyway, I have just found a website [...]

These days, hiding or locking a folder or file is probably something you will need if you use a computer that others use too. A previous post has been written on this topic here but I have found a few other methods of doing such a thing, excluding download programs that can be easily accessible [...]

RSS feeds are becoming more common these days, and are the most popular form of quick information as well as easy access to your favorite topics and articles. Of course, many people know of feed readers such as Google Reader and Bloglines but I have found a few other feed readers that may just be [...]

Search engines have become a common necessity. With the vast amount of web sites out there, it has become much easier to find websites using search engines. Of course the most popular are Google, Yahoo, Windows Live and Ask. I have found some that are not as common and most certainly deserve to be used. [...]