Why does my monitor go black after about 15 minutes of not using the computer?

Windows has a Power Management setting that will shut your monitor off after a specified amount of time. If you don't like when it's shutting the monitor off, you can change it by doing the following:
1. Hit the Start button, Settings, Control Panel (XP users: hit the Start button, Control Panel , then go to Performance and Maintenance link). Then, open the Power Management icon .
2. Look for the " Turn off monitor " drop box. Select the amount of time you want the computer to wait before shutting off the monitor, or tell it not to shut the monitor off at all.

Creat your own screensavers

If you have your pictures in computer and also like using a screen saver then you can create your own pictures slide show screen saver. You can use any third party application to run your picture as slide show. But windows XP also supports this feature and takes any picture that stored in your computer “My Pictures” folder to run in random order as a screen saver.
Follow the given steps to create your pictures screen saver.
First store all your pictures in your computer “My Pictures” folder.
Right click on empty area of your desktop and then click on properties.
Now select Screen saver tab on top of the dialog box.
Here click on Screen saver list and choose My Pictures slideshow option.
Now check its preview and press ok button.

Disabling Run or Find from the Start Menu

Start Regedit
Go to HKey_Current_User \ Software\ Microsoft \Windows \ Current Version \ Policies \ Explorer
Right click on the right panel and add a New / DWORD
Name it NoFile or NoRun
Give it a value of 1
Logoff or Reboot the computer

Overview of the Linux file system

/bin All commands which are used by normal users
/etc System conf files
/var Server data logs Mail proxy cache
/dev All devices name stored in /dev
/sbin All commands which are used by supper user
/boot Linux kernel ( vmlinuz , initrd ) Grub directory
/usr All gui tools installed in /usr
/proc System information’s ( picture of RAM )
/home User's home dir's
/tmp Temporary files
/media Auto mounted devices mount point in /media

Hidden User Account

For my next trick I will make a user account disappear, yet remain a full functioning account. Today's Security Tip is another way to lock down your system, and it does this by hiding specified user accounts. This feature is only available in XP and 2000, so unfortunately the rest of you are out of luck. This process does involve an easy registry edit, but if you're uncomfortable with that you might want to think twice about attempting this.

Normally when you log into XP, you see the startup screen where you see all the icons for the users who can access. What this tip does is allow you to hide a desired account from this screen. If you want to log on as this user you have to press Cntrl+Alt+Del twice at the Welcome screen to make a Windows Security dialog box appear. Here you can type in the user name and password of the hidden account and log in. Limited Users shouldn't be able to see any sign of you except for the listing in the Documents and Settings folder. Other administrative users will be able to see your hidden account in Control Panel/User Accounts, so keep this in mind when you're planning this out.
All right, now down to the good stuff. If having a hidden account sounds like your cup of tea, and you have no problem with small Registry augmentation, then let's go:
* First we need to open up the Registry Editor. Go to Start/Run and type "regedit" and click OK
* You should be looking at the Registry editor, and what we need to do now is navigate to H-KEY\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\Userlist . You will not see this folder if you do not have "show hidden system files" turned on.
* Once here we need to create another DWORD value. This is easier than it sounds, right click on the User list label file on the left side of the screen and select New>DWORD . You'll see the new entry in the right pane of the window, rename this value the name of the user account you want hidden (exactly how it is listed in the Startup screen, case sensitive) and leave the value at 0.
* Close your Registry Editor and restart the PC. When the Welcome screen comes up you'll notice that there's no icon for the user you just concealed. So how do you log in? This is where you press Cntrl+Alt+Del 2x's and the Windows Security Dialog box will come asking you to authenticate (name/password) after this the system should log you in.
Here's one more thing you might want to keep in mind, Windows logon screen. This is the screen where you see the available users you can choose to log in as. You can turn this option on/off in the User Accounts ( Start/Control Panel/User Accounts then "Change the way Users log in or off" and "Use Windows Welcome Screen" and you need to turn it off if you plan on using a hidden account and there are no other accounts on the system. The reason why is that the Windows doesn't have any user accounts to display in the Welcome screen, so it will continuously reboot. Now if you do run into this or any problems simply enter Safe mode at the next boot, this will allow you to go to the User Accounts Window and fix any problems. If you find that you can't log in at all with your hidden account go back and look at the registry value you created. Make sure you're spelling the user name is correct and that it's in the right location in the registry.

Forbidden file and folder names in windows 2000 and XP

Today an interesting tip about some names which windows has reserved. You can say there are some restricted words that cannot be assigned to name of files and folders. If you create a folder on your desktop and try to rename it with name “con” (or others reserved words) then the message will be appear in windows 2000 “Cannot rename New Folder: A file with the name you specified already exists. Specify a different filename” or “Cannot create or replace file: The filename you specified is invalid or too long. Specify a different filename”.
In windows XP when you try to rename a folder with reserved word then it automatically reverts the folder back to its original name.

You can give surprise to your friends with this interesting tip and show them this trick with that restricted words
The following are reserved names, which cannot be assigned to a folder or file (normally):
CON
PRN

AUX
NUL
COM1
COM2
COM3
COM4
COM5
COM6
COM7
COM8
COM9
LPT1
LPT2
LPT3
LPT4
LPT5
LPT6
LPT7
LPT8
LPT9

How Firewalls Work

There are mean people out there that want very badly to get into your system or network. Maybe they want to steal information, to simply cause as much destruction as possible, or to use your system for their own uses. If you're online a lot or have a broadband connection, the attempts to enter your system may be relentless.
I feel that there are three main areas of defense against these threats: Anti-virus (of course), Firewall, and Spyware removal. With some programs being more important than others, but none being without importance. What I would like to do is give all of our readers at least a good concept of what these Firewalls and Anti-virus programs do to protect your system. I'm going to attempt to highlight the functions of these utilities and even some good practices that you can implement.
This week I'll be discussing the first line of defense between you and the Internet firewall. A firewall isn't going to stop you from getting a lot of viruses out there, unless it's the kind of viruses that proactively scans systems for open ports like the 32.Sasser that has recently stepped onto the virus scene. Where firewalls really come into play is in the area of Internet or Network access.
There are two basic types of firewalls: hardware and software.
A common hardware firewall is a routers. In a small network it sits in-between your PC and modem. These firewalls feature the ability to hide your PC from others on the Internet by assigning you private IP addresses through a process called NAT (Network Address Translation) or DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).
I may have lost some people there who are not familiar with IP addressing. This can get confusing rather quickly. To put it simpler: a router will take the Internet address that your ISP has doled out to you and give the PCs the are connected to the router a generic private IP address (not valid for the internet). The other primary job is to close ports (these are numbers that are associated with certain jobs, for example most email clients and servers use SMTP port 25 and POP3 port#110) ports can be a vulnerability as seen in the past and a hacker can have an easy time getting into your PC with ports wide open to the world. When hackers try to scan your network for known vulnerable ports the Firewall simply drops the packets because they contain data that no PC on the network requested.
Software firewalls are a little bit different and they have good points and bad points. First let me start by saying that it is always better to have a firewall then not to. The main difference between the two styles of firewalls is that one is an external device that runs on it's own hardware. The software firewall is an application that runs on your PC. This is the one down side I believe because it's one more application running on your PC while you're trying to surf the web and can cause resource overhead and slow things down in older PCs. In concept the firewalls really are the same, except that one of the biggest differences is a software firewall doesn't have any address translation services (i.e. NAT or DCHP).
Software firewalls do have some really great features however. For instance, a software firewall is great for someone who is new to this area of PCs and wants to learn more. I say this because most of these firewalls have a reasonably easy to understand interface different from the more "Techie" looking router interfaces.
Software firewalls also have a feature for Internet access that I think is very informative, for example in most of the software firewalls I have come across when a program tries to access the internet the firewall will pop up and ask you if you want this action to be allowed every time, prompt every time, or deny Internet access to the program. Most software firewalls will also notify you when someone from outside is hitting your firewall and a lot of times you get the IP address of the party on the other end of the actions. Both of these features can be used to further protect your PC, in some cases you might even be able catch a hacker trying to get into your PC by getting their IP address and then asking there ISP what this IP address is doing pinging your IP address.
I've actually helped one of customers do this they called me up and said that there firewall kept making noises and popping up with windows saying that there was some activity on here firewall. She said that this had been going on for a couple of days. Well we opened up the interface and looked at the log describing what the activity was and from whom it originated. There were a bunch of pings hitting her firewall, but the software gave us the IP address, and from there we opened up a command line and pinged the IP address back and it came up with their ISP's domain name. She called that ISP and talked to them about this address and what has been going on. I wouldn't be surprised if he was kicked from his Internet service.

Turn on a screensaver with adding a shortcut

-You can run screensaver on your system with a single click, If you have any screensaver file like .scr extension, or first download it using Internet, there are many free sites for screensaver downloading.
-If you have not any .scr file then please go to Start button, and click on Search button. Here in search windows type *.scr and search all screen saver file from your hard disk.
-Here you will find a list of screensavers in the results. Pick a screensaver you want. You can preview it by double-clicking it.
-Right click on the file, choose Send To, and then click Desktop (create shortcut).
-To activate the screensaver, double-click the icon on your desktop.

Defragmenter Program to Optimize the Placement of Files

This utility program is used to re-organize the files and un-used space on the hard disk, so that operation system can access data more quickly and easily. When operating system stores data on the disk, it stores the data in the first available sector on the disk. In this case data of a file is stored on disk in a scattered form; it is referred to as “File is fragmented”. The fragmentation slows down the data accessing speed of computer. You can improve the performance of your computer by de-fragmenting your hard disk. In De-fragmentation process, the data of each file is stored in continuous sectors. There are many third party software’s available in market for this purpose but you can use windows built-in utility program called Disk Defragmenter. To start disk defragmenter utility, first make sure all running program are closed.
To run disk defragmenter utility, go to the Start button and type dfrg.msc in Run option then press ok. Now here a disk defragmenter window will appear. Select any drive and press defragmenter button. If you have a large hard disk, this process can take several hours. I recommend you doing this after one month if you want to improve the performance of your computer.

Windows Repair Installation

Some time windows missing the startup files due to the power failure, virus's attack and any illegal action by user. You can solve the windows startup problem with running the windows repair installation. Almost all windows serious problem can be solved using windows repair function. For repair windows XP, you should have the bootable windows CD.
First boot your computer using bootable windows XP, CD. To boot from CD, first change the booting order setting in your system BIOS.
When first blue screen will appear, do not choose any option here; simply press the Enter button to go for next option.

Next you will get "Windows License agreement" page, simply press F8 button to accept this agreement.

Now in second blue screen press the R on your keyboard to repair the windows XP installation. This recovery function repaired the all-missing windows features.

In half an hour windows will complete all recovery process. This recovery process will not disturbed your Desktop and My Document data. May be your some windows sitting will change after completing process.

How to compress files in Winrar using advanced parameters?

Today tip will help you to manage the computer disk space using file compression utilities. You can run the data compression utility with advanced compression parameters to compress 15% more than normal method that you do not access often. Common file compression utility include Winrar is the more powerful and popular tool than other compression tools. You can download this tool from any free utilities website. Download it and run the easy setup.
Fellow the given steps to compress your data with advanced parameters:
After installation launch winrar, the first screen will appear with many options.
Now right click on your file and then select the option "Add to archive" from the context menu.

Here a window dialog will appear with title "Archive name and parameters". In General tab, click on "Compression Method" button to select the "Best" option from dropdown menu.

Now select the Advanced tab and click on Compression button to display the advanced compression parameters.

Now under the "Text Compression" area, select "Force" radio button and change the "Prediction order" value to 63 then change "Memory to use" type to 128. Now click Ok button to finish the process.

This all compression method will help you to compress your data 15% more than normal method.

Automatic Screen Refresh Tips

When you are working on your local computer and want to refresh any changes in your system automatically. For example some times you are watching sports results, online Stock Exchange rates and any changes to your hard drive but these changes are not usually refreshed until you press the F5 key on your keyboard.
To refresh your screen automatically you should edit your system Registry. But the best technique to edit the windows registry keys, always export or backup the whole windows registry keys on backup drive before editing. Because any mistake in Registry can cause serious problem in your computer to run properly.
Follow the given steps to change the updates automatically.

-First click on Start button then type Regedit in Run option.
-In Registry Editor panel go to the path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / System / CurrentControlSet /
Control / UpdateMode
-Here in right hand side panel edit the DWORD value to be between 1 and 5.
-Now restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.

Tips to Print the Whole Page

If you are browsing any website and want to print it in readable form without any extra graphics. There is a option on many websites " Print " to print a page in text format only, otherwise you can print out any webpage with its background colors and with out background colors using Internet Explorer setting. Generally Internet Explorer setting "Print background colors and images" is disable, if you are printing webpage without background colors, then you can speed up your printing and save printer ink. But important thing to always preview WebPages before you print, in Internet Explorer go to File menu, then click on Print Preview option.
To enable or disable print background colors option, open your system Internet Explorer.
Click the Tools menu and then go to Internet Options and open it. Here click the Advanced tab then scroll down to find the option Printing section.
Now check the option "Print background colors and images" then Apply and ok.

Indicate Secure Sites for save Transactions

Today there are many application of e-commerce such as home banking, buying stocks, collaboration electronically with business partners around the globe, marketing and advertising products, providing services to the customers using internet. But you should avoid sending your personal information like your bank account numbers, credit card numbers and password using any unknown site. Always use secure websites for this purpose because secure websites safe your private information from others using encryption and some authentication standards. Internet Explorer always display a small lock icon on the task bar when we open any secure site and start domain name with https\\.

Take your contacts with you using Export option.

A cool tip to move your contacts list using Microsoft Outlook, because there is no any option to copy it. But using a Import and Export method you can create a printable or moveable document.
To create this text list, first open Microsoft Outlook. Here go to File option then you will find option Import and Export, to run the Import/Export wizard Click here then Next.
Here you can select what to import and export, Select "Export to a file" under "choose an action to perform" option then click Next button. Next you will get option "create a file of type" here you can specify the file type. In next step you will select which folder you want to export.
Select "Save Exported File as" option and give it a name and location. Click Next and Finish it. Now you have one easily moveable file and you can move it any where with you.

How to use shortcut keys in gmail account?

You can operate your Gmail account using keyboard shortcuts keys instead of mouse to navigate. Basically keyboard shortcuts keys help you to save time and you can perform any tasks without leaving the keyboard keys. Many computer applications help you to create your own custom shortcuts keys to enjoy even more flexibility.
Useful Gmail account Shortcut keys
Shortcut keys Action
f Press simple f help you to forward email message to next
Shift+I Use to mark email message as read
Shift+u Use to mark email message as unread
r Reply to the sender of mail

a Reply to the all email recipients
Ctrl+c Use to save current email as draft
Z Press z key to undo any previous action
? Display the keyboard shortcut keys help
c Press c button to compose an new email message
/ Press / button to move your cursor in search box
u Press u key to refresh your email account to view latest email
! Press ! key to mark an email message as spam
p Press p key to move cursor to precious message
. Press . key to display more options
Esc Escape cursor from any current field.

How to configure Stub area in OSPF protocol?

The area feature is used in OSPF to divide a large network into small segments. Any changes in one area will not cause any problem in other areas, thus reducing routing table size and processor overhead also.
There are three main types of area:
Stub area
Totally stub area
Not-So-Stubby area (NSSA)
The main purpose of stub area is to block the flooding from AS external advertisements in OSPF and only OSPF injects a default router into a stub area. In this tip we will discuss here only about stub area and the remaining areas will be discussed in the next tips.
Follow the network topology of three different routers in given figure:

There are some common OSPF configuration and Executable commands:
In this example we will not configure router C as stub area because it is backbone router and does not participate in area 1. So we will be concerned here only with router A and router B.
OSPF configuration on Router B as stubby area
In global configuration mode
Router-B(config) # router ospf 1 (Here 1 indicates the process identification number)
Router-B(config-Router) # network 20.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area 1 (Here 20.0.0.0 indicates the network ID and 0.225.255.255 wildcard mask with area 1)
Router-B(config-Router) # network 30.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area 0 (Here 30.0.0.0 indicates the network ID and 0.225.255.255 wildcard mask with area 0)
Router-B(config-Router) #area 1 stub (Here 1 indicate the area ID and area 1 is designated as stubby area)
Router-B(config-Router) #exit (exit from ospf 1 on router B)
OSPF configuration on Router A as stubby area
In global configuration mode
Router-A(config) # router ospf 1 (Here 1 indicates the process identification number)
Router-A(config-Router) # network 210.100.10.0 0.0.0.255 area 1 (Here 210.100.10.0 indicates the network ID and 0.0.0.255 wildcard mask with area 1)
Router-A(config-Router) # network 20.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area 1 (Here 20.0.0.0 indicates the network ID and 0.225.255.255 wildcard mask with area 1)
Router-A(config-Router) #area 1 stub (Here 1 indicate the area ID and area 1 is designated as stubby area)
Router-A(config-Router) #exit (exit from ospf 1 on router A)

How to create digital photo album presentation in PowerPoint?

In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can create a digital photo album of your scanned photographs to represent as slide show presentation. Using this feature, you can display your business photo album on the web. Once you have converted it into HTML document, PowerPoint will allow you to publish this album to the internet. You can create unlimited albums and also add unlimited photos in each album.
Follow the given steps to create a digital photo album of your scanned photographs:
-First create a folder of your scanned pictures or transfer from your digital camera or download from the web.
-Now click on "Picture" option from the "Insert" menu then click on "New Photo Album" option.
-Here a small dialog box will appear with "Photo Album" title. Now click on "File/Disk" button under "Insert picture from" area to add first picture in album.
-Here you can add unlimited picture in one album. If you want to get pictures from scanner or camera then click on "Scanner/Camera" button.
-Now you can add effects to your pictures, for example rotates picture to different directions, background colors, picture brightness and contrast levels.
-Now under "Album Layout" area, you can choose the best picture layout, Frame shape and add design template also for your photos album.
-Once you have selected the all required pictures and layouts for your photo album then click on "Create" button to start the process.
-Now "Save" the file and then run this photo album in Slide Show.