Windows
1.
Windows Vista/7
Deactivating background services while
gaming with just a click.
If you want to wring out the last
performance reserves from your system, unnecessary background services need to
be shut down. Deactivating the services manually is however, a long-winded,
time- consuming and annoying process, since you must reactivate them after
gaming. The free tool. Game Booster, accomplishes this job with just a few
clicks. You can download the tool from www.inhit.nnm/gamfthnnstftr.html.
Save the file 'gb3-setup.exe' in any desired folder. To install, double-click
on the file from Windows Explorer and follow the instructions in the wizard.
After the installation, start the tool from
'Start | All programs | Game Booster 3 | Game Booster 3'. Click on 'Settings'
during the first run. There, you can define the services which should be
stopped by putting a tick in front of the desired entries in the categories
'Process', 'Unnecessary service', 'Unknown service' and 'Miscellaneous'. The
tool provides initial recommendations. In the next step, select 'Gamebox' and
start the desired games. Game Booster first stops the defined services before
the game starts. If you end the game, the tool restores your usual workspace.
You then find Game Booster in the system tray.
If the game you want is not listed under
'Gamebox', click on 'Go to Booster' and 'Boost'. To return to normal mode, you
must call up Game Booster from the system tray and select 'Back'.
The
free tool has a simple interface for deactivating background services.
Note: Further adjustments are possible if you click on the icon of a
wrench in the red bar.
2.
Windows XP/Vista/7
Recovering windows from beyond the screen
Windows allows you to move windows even
beyond the visible area on the desktop. However, if you find you cannot work in
these windows after that, you might have some trouble. By simply using the key
combination [Alt] + [Tab], you can activate a lost window even beyond the
visible area. You must press the combination a number of times to reach the
desired window. The popup box in the middle of the desktop will show you when
you have reached it with a highlighted icon or thumbnail. Then press (Alt] +
[Space] and then [M]. The cursor changes to a cross arrows cursor and you can
easily move the active window using the keyboard arrow keys. If you have
forgotten to which side of the desktop you have moved the window to, you must
experiment a bit till it appears in the visible area. When the window is at the
desired location on the screen, you can drop it there with [Enter].
The
window menu includes controls that you can activate with just the keyboard.
3.
Windows 7
Stopping automatic alignment of windows
easily
Windows 7 automatically aligns windows if
the user drags them to the screen's edge with the mouse. As soon as the pointer
touches the edge, the window expands to the left or the right half over
everything else on screen. The exact reaction is decided by the desktop edge
touching the window. Most users consider this a useful time-saving function,
while others feel disturbed if they just want to temporarily move the window
and instead it just takes up large amounts of screen real estate.
Fortunately, you have a say in this
behavior. For this, open 'Start | Control Panel', click on 'Ease of Access' and
then on 'Ease of Access Center'. In the classic view the Control Panel, you
simply double-click on 'Ease of Access Center'. Now, click on 'Make the mouse
easier to use' If you want to stop automatic arrangement of windows, activate
the option 'Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the
edge of the screen'. Select this option; it can always be reversed later.
Confirm your selection by clicking on 'OK'.
You
can disable and re-enable the Aero Snap feature at any time through this dialog
box.
4.
Windows Vista/7
Quickly recovering access to favorite
gadgets
Using Windows’ Gadgets, you can quickly
reference diverse information from various sources in the sidebar or on a free
area of your Windows desktop. Microsoft offers a few additional choices via the
Windows Live Gallery on its own website. A few other websites also offer
additional gadgets. The portal codeplex.com has quite a few, but this is a
software developer community, which others might find confusing to navigate.
Another website is gallery-live.com, which
looks very similar to the official site, gallery.live.com, in the browser's
address bar. Gadgets will soon be replaced by Metro apps with Live Tiles in the
Windows 8 ecosystem. These are born from the same idea of displaying
information readily, but are quite different in actual use. Gradually, Metro
Apps will take over precedence in Windows.
This
website has a convenient archive of desktop gadgets which Microsoft is moving
away from.
5.
Windows Vista/7
Viewing the latest stock prices on the
desktop
While a Gadget to fetch stock prices was
integrated in Vista, it is not available in Windows 7 due to licensing reasons
and cannot even be installed later. Surprisingly, there were relatively few
replacement options until recently. An attractive alternative is provided by a
company called Blue Onion Software. You can visit
blueonionsoftware.com/downloads.aspx and search on the page for the Market
Report gadget. Several others are also available there. The ticker window can
be positioned anywhere on your desktop and will occupy minimal space. It shows
activity from the major world indices and is updated every few minutes.
A more comprehensive option is the Yahoo
Stock Ticker gadget, which is no longer officially available from Yahoo's
website but can be found on third-party download sites. Yahoo does not maintain
or support this gadget any longer.
An
unobtrusive gadget on the desktop will keep you updated of stock market
movements.
