Pin Facebook chat to your taskbar Windows 7

Unfortunately because of updates to Facebook this no longer works.

In this post I will show you how to have Facebook Chat pinned to your Windows 7 taskbar, ready to launch anytime.
The easiest way is to do this through Google Chrome – if you don’t have it you can download it here.
Firstly, open Chrome, and go to www.facebook.com.
Secondly, go to settings (wrench) > tools > create application shortcuts.
You will then be given the option of a desktop, start menu and taskbar shortcut.
Now you have www.facebook.com pinned to your taskbar we need to change it to the url of the chat.
Open the chat at the bottom of the screen and click options and then pop out chat.
Now when this window is open copy the url, it should be http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php .
Next, navigate your way to - C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar





Then find the Facebook icon, right click > shortcut then edit the target field, where it says –“app=http://www.facebook.com/ “ change it to app=http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php
When you click on the Facebook icon on your taskbar it will take you straight to Facebook chat providing your logged in.

Microsoft: 'Don't let friends use Internet Explorer 6'

In the summer of 2001 the world was introduced to Internet Explorer 6. Now Microsoft are saying “Don't let friends use Internet Explorer 6” and are encouraging people to move on to their newer and better browser, Internet Explorer 8, or even Internet Explorer 9. This is because the internet and the way in which we use it is constantly changing.

Microsoft have launched a website in order to get people to stop their friends and family to stop using IE 6. Some of the benefits to using it are – tabbed browsing, improved speed. It has a lot more to offer too, Microsoft have created a list of features that IE 8 has over IE 6 – comparison chart. 

Although IE 9 is available but is Release Candidate (which means it’s very nearly to be released fully but may have some bugs.)

Download IE 8 – download

Download IE 9 – download

So my last word on this is, do the decent thing, get your friends and family off IE 6 and update to a newer IE or maybe something else……(I’ll let you decide which one).  

Read PDF files as default in Google Chrome

Everybody at some stage will more than likely need to view a PDF file. An easy way of doing this is by using Google Chrome. Since most things are done through a web browser now email and creating documents for example, why not add viewing PDFs to the ever expanding list of things your web browser does.

Right click > Open With > ‘Choose default programme’ then select Google Chrome.

 

When you open PDF files in the future it will open in Chrome, like in this example.

How to create a back up list of your iTunes music and apps.

If you have a large collection of apps and music then it can be hard to remember them all and should there be a problem where you lose them all for what ever reason it would be nice to have a list of them to fall back on to regain your collection. So in this article I will show you how to create a way to make a list of all of the contents of your iTunes collection by creating PDF lists, this way you have a list and the file size is quite small. 
Firstly for this to work you will need to have a PDF Creator Software installed on the computer. I personally use FoxIt Reader, this is free lightweight software that will allow you to view and create PDFs.
Now that we have installed the software we are ready to make our list of iTunes contents.
First open iTunes and click on category you want to make a list for, example – Apps.
Now go to file > print and you will be shown a dialogue box with a list of options. Also click on the page setup button to make sure the page orientation is on landscape. Click on both pages and you will now be given a list of printers depending on how many are on you network, however you want to click on the FoxIt PDF Printer from the list or what ever PDF software you have installed. When you click on o.k you will be given the option of where to save the file, this is entirely up to you, I chose my desktop.
That’s it you should have now successfully created  a back up list of you apps. The same is done for making a list for music and outcome is the same.

Enable/ Unlock the hidden Administrator account in Vista

In previous versions of Windows there is the option to log on as the admin account. However this doesn’t seem to be an option in Vista unless you use this little trick that I found.
First, go to start and in the search box type cmd (this will bring up command prompt, now don’t double click it yet because we want to run it as a administrator, to do this right click on cmd.exe and choose ‘run as administrator’.) As shown in the picture.
NOTE: If you have UAC (User Account Control) active then you will be shown a notification, just click continue.
2) Now that the command prompt window is open, type the following, –
“ net user administrator /active:yes ” (without quotation marks)
If you got to Start> Control Panel > User Accounts > then click on ‘manage other accounts’, you will now see the Administrator account.
If you no longer want it you can follow the steps above but instead type – “net user administrator /active:no” (without quotation marks). If you go to Control Panel and user accounts you will notice it is no longer there.
Thanks for reading.

Log into Windows Vista automatically from boot

When Windows Vista boots, if you don’t want to type in your password all of the time then use these steps below and it will log into Vista automatically without prompting you for your password.


This is probably the screen you normally see when you log on to your computer, (but with your name instead of mine). Now this is where Vista wants you to type in your password. Now to stop this from happening and for Vista to log in automatically then follow the steps below.




1) First go to start and type in the search bar – “netplwiz” (without quotes)

You will now be shown this dialog box.
2) Secondly, untick the box that says ‘Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer’










3)You will then be asked to enter your password and confirm it.







This is the screen you will see when you next boot your machine instead of the log on screen.






This is usually only advised on personal computers, not computers that contain important information as it is not very secure.

If you decide to change your password you will have to go through these steps again.

Thanks for reading.

Internet Explorer 9 (Beta)

Microsoft is set to release a its latest version of Internet Explorer (or IE) within in the next few weeks.

I have downloaded the Beta test version of it from their website and I have had a look and to be honest, I’m impressed. Compared to past version it’s a drastic improvement. I have discussed web browsers on this blog before and I don’t usually rate Internet Explorer as a browser, until now. Firefox, Chrome and Opera should be worried, it seems that Microsoft have finally sorted out the main problems with IE and the main problem they have solved is, speed.

Internet Explorer has been well known for its lack of speed but now this issue has been addressed this makes IE a good browser.

As well as addressing the issue of speed they have ‘de-cluttered’ it by adopting a similar layout to that of Google Chrome. Instead of the usual ‘file’ ‘edit’ etc it has all been moved to three simple icons on the right hand side. Settings icon covers all of the basics, new tab, new window and options. Next to it is the Favourites icon which contains all of your favourites. Next to that is a home icon for taking you back to your home page.

If you are interested in trying out the latest version of you can download it from the Microsoft website; Internet Explorer 9 (Beta)