http://www.techsupport.me.uk/guides/how-to-make-your-pc-case-look-like-a-million-dollars/

The page Ken wrote got the most unique hits between the 1st of May and 31st of May – He will now be the proud owner of some Corsair XMS DDR2 Memory which will be winging its way to him soon.

Big thanks for taking part Ken. Techsupport.me.uk have really enjoyed some of the entries that were submitted and have found the contest quite refreshing. What this space for similar competitions in the future.  Thanks everyone!

One of the best ways to improve your case’s looks without spending huge money is to spray-paint it. Getting serious with spray-paint is more about patience than money, but your case will still look like a million dollars

Getting that show car shine on your case is a great way to grab serious attention. In this chapter, I will reveal the secrets to getting your case to have the gloss of a new BMW, but for the price of a used Geo. Professionals use compressed air and special equipment to paint. But you can get results that are just as good with a “rattlecan” and some sanding techniques. First we will cover the proper techniques for surface preparation, and paint application. Then we will deal with applying the clear coat and finish the sanding. You can paint your case according to this chapter and have a great looking case, but by adding the finishing touches you can have the show car look that will turn heads.

Your total budget for this project will be under Forty dollars (and you can do just the first portion for fewer than twenty). You’ll need:

1x can of primer
1x or more cans of spray-paint in your choice of color
1x can of clear coat

For surface preparation, you’ll need a sheet each of 220, 320, and 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper, and a sanding block. For finish sanding, you’ll need a sheet each of 600, 1000, and 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper, a wire brush, paint stripper (both for correcting mistakes), plus rubbing compound. The rubbing can be found in any automotive supply store. You’ll also want two or three clean tack cloths

When you select your paints, choose a good quality spray-paint for automotive applications. Auto parts stores are the best sources because you can usually pick up your sanding materials at the same time as your paint. Use a primer and paint from the same manufacturer for the best results, and never mix lacquer with acrylic enamel, pick one system or the other. I chose to use enamel for this project. If you’re not after the show car look, and just want a rugged paint job, epoxy paint is available for extreme ruggedness.

Don’t skimp on the paint, because in this project the labor will be vastly more intense than the material cost. As you can see, I spared no expense–I went for the automotive gray primer.

You might have heard the key to successful painting is preparation, and if so, you heard right. Sand down the existing paint (usually a powder coat finish with a light texture on most cases) to get as flat a surface as possible before applying our paint. To remove the beige paint, start with 220 grit, which is fine, but has a good deal of cutting action. Sand your panels fairly aggressively in a north-south motion, but lighten when if you start to cut through the beige to metal. We don’t need to remove the beige, but we do want the texture gone. Then move to a 320 grit and sand east-west with a light pressure. This will remove the scratch marks from the previous sanding, and smooth the surface. You will see the results by your own reflection on the surface

Sand the bezel (façade of the case), both because we want to get rid of the texture, and because the raised lettering by the buttons will get flattened when we finish sand, so removing it during prep avoids having the old color show through. So get rid of the raised lettering or symbols on your bezel if you have any.

And the final key to prep is cleanliness. Leaving an oily fingerprint on your panel can keep the paint from properly adhering; so can dust from sanding or just regular old crud that blows by. So work in a dust-free area as much as possible, and wipe down your sanded work piece with tack cloth before applying paint or primer. Care taken here will pay of in the form of a durable, chip-resistant finish.

For each panel you’re painting (plus the bezel), take them to this state of smoothness first. Primer won’t fill scratches unless they’re very, very fine, and the application of your color coat will make scratches pop out like neon signs, so don’t take shortcuts on preparation. Wet sanding keeps the sandpaper from clogging with paint particles. To properly wet sand, all you need is a shallow container with about a gallon of clean water to which you’ve added a couple drops of liquid dish detergent. If you have running water, that works well also. Rinse away the entire paint residue and wipe the work piece with a clean tack cloth, then set it aside to dry thoroughly. You may find that a spray bottle with the same clean water/dish soap is easier. Either way, choose your method and stick with it.

Apply primer to your newly prepped surfaces. Pay attention to the edges, and to any areas where metal shows through the beige. Those are spots that will tend to wear, especially when you sand between coats.

Continue to apply thin coats to the work pieces until you’ve covered them completely. You’ll see a flat, matte surface at this point. Let the primer dry (usually you can sand within a half hour, but check the directions on the can) and wet sand your primer coat with 400 grit and light pressure. You’ll almost certainly cut through the primer, especially around the edges. So after sanding we’ll do a second primer coat

Applying the second coat is the same technique as the first, but now you’ll see the cut-through areas, and you can direct a little extra primer towards them. Again, sand this coat with 400 grit. This will remove any overspray (paint particles that dry in midair and fall on the surface), and flatten out any dust nibs or stray insects that would mess up the flat surface.

Now break out the color coat and go insane! No, actually, you’ll want to apply thin coats again, just like with the primer. Mistakes in primer are easy to sand out, but with the color coat, things like drips or scratches will be much more work to fix. So be careful to get the edges of your work pieces, and thoroughly coat them with several thin coats, leaving a finish that looks “wet.” You’ll still see some “red” texture; this is inevitable when using rattle cans. But our next steps will be to sand the red peel flat, and apply a couple clear coats to add gloss and protect the color coat

You can see we’re quite glossy, but not yet getting mirror-quality reflections. That’s because the slight texture in the surface distorts the reflections (we’re missing the flatness). So we need to let the color coat cure for a minimum of two days (some paints will continue to harden for up to a month actually, but usually you can sand within two to three days) and then go back for the fun part, finish sanding.

You can certainly stop here and have a really nice paint job. The time we spent on prep will make this a very durable finish, and it sure looks better than factory at this point. But in the next part, we’ll finish sanding and apply a clear coat (and sand and clear coat and sand and…) to get the ultimate finish on our panels.

Anyone can spray paint their case. It’s not too hard to get a decent looking paint job from ordinary cans of spray paint. But to get a truly extreme paint job, the kind you’d see on a show car, you’ll need to apply some clear coat, and a healthy amount of elbow grease. Fortunately neither one is very expensive. I was looking for a “cooling lava” look. I wanted the case to be mostly red, but with hints of black. This would give the appearance of molten lava with cool spots

To briefly recap how we got to this state, it was removing the existing paint with 220 grit, applying primer, sanding the primer smooth with 400 grit, applying a second coat of primer, sanding that smooth with 400 grit, and applying a color coat. Every time we apply paint we pick up an “orange peel” texture. That’s inherent in using a rattle can to apply paint. Our main job in sanding is to flatten the surface. The better you flatten, the more convincing the mirror look becomes. So our next step is to sand our first color coat with 600 grit to flatten and prepare the surface for the second color coat. Unlike primer, a color coat needs to cure two to three days before being sanded.

If you cut through the color coat a little like in the bottom of the previous picture, that’s fine. Try to use that as an indication to back off the pressure on your sanding block. 600 grit is very fine, and when the surface approaches flatness, you’ll feel the work piece “grab” your sanding block. If you keep up strong pressure at that point, you’re likely to cut through. Low spots will show up as glossy black pits against the matte where you’ve sanded. You’ll need to dry the work piece to see these, but they show you where you need to sand further. Work spent flattening these will pay off–otherwise they’ll show as dimples in your finish.

Once you’ve flattened everything down, apply your second color coat. Don’t worry about dust nibs or small bugs that land on it. These will get sanded smooth later–you’ll mess it up more by trying to fix these while the paint is wet. Make sure your second color coat is even but thick. Concentrate on areas where you cut through the first color coat. This picture shows the orange peel texture that you just finished spending all that time removing. You’ll need to repeat the 600 grit sanding step for the second coat, making sure to not cut through to primer. Don’t over apply the paint; it will be more likely to drip or form blemishes

Again, allow your color coat to cure for a minimum of two days before you sand. After sanding the second color coat, you should have panels with a uniform matte finish, with no glossy pits. There will be visible fine scratch marks from the sandpaper. If you get any deep scratches, they will show through to the finished surface unless you take the time to fix them now. Unfortunately, that usually means sanding them out, and that can put you back all the way to applying primer again. So watch out for grit or debris on your sandpaper.

You could buff this finish out to a decent gloss. But by applying a clear coat, you’ll deepen the gloss significantly. Apply the clear coat to the work pieces generously. Don’t over apply, but build up several thin applications to a wet, glossy coat. Orange peel texture will be noticeable, and dust nibs will seem to be magnetically attracted, but don’t worry. Again, we cure this coat for two days, and then we repeat the 600 grit flattening-out-the-orange peel routine. If you cut through the clear coat, a second application is necessary, plus the two day cure before you sand again. By now you see this is not a technique for the impatient. But once you finish the flattening, you get to move up the grit scale again to scratch removal. Lightly sand with 1000 grit and then 1500 grit (and 2000 if you have some) to remove the scratches left by each previous step

All that sanding work was very, very tedious, but it pays off right now. If you did a good job with the previous steps, the application of rubbing compound won’t be anywhere near as difficult as if you cut corners. By now you’ve got a good six hours into sanding, so I know that if you’re with me here, you’re going the distance. And I promise that the last couple steps are a little less tedious. To buff out the fine scratches, use a high quality rubbing compound available from auto parts stores. Apply it per the package directions, but fundamentally you rub the scratches out, leaving only a faint haze. Use only a clean, soft cotton cloth for this step.

This is the payoff! You’ll see the gloss emerge as you remove the compound from the panels. The matte finish is replaced by gloss with only a faint haze. There are swirl mark removers and glazes available where you get your paint supplies to remove the last traces of haze. You can apply these right after compounding. If you want to use an automobile wax, wait a month for the paint to fully cure first. But with the hand glaze applied, you’ll have the show car look that will grab serious attention

Tech Support me is giving you the chance to win the following memory (Spec sheet)

Here’s what you have to do between now and April 30 2009 we need you to write a tech support article, technical how-to guide or harware/software review (see the main page for examples) which will be posted on our main site (credit will be given to you for writing the article). Click Here to enter

1. Instant search

The Instant Search box is at the bottom of the Start menu.

Enter the name of a file or program in here and the white column of the Start menu will display results instantly as you type. It’s the quickest and easiest way to find anything on your PC.

2. Vista gadgets

Gadgets are completely new to Windows Vista. These little utilities can provide instant access from your desktop to useful things like a clock or calculator as well as fun stuff like a mini-slideshow of your photos. Click on Windows Sidebar in your taskbar to access gadgets.

3. Check security status

Windows Vista features an all-new Security Center that monitors your computer’s safety.

To find out your computer’s current level of security, go to Start > Control Panel and click on the link that says ‘Check this computer’s security status’ under the ‘Security’ heading.

4. Using the Security Center

The Security Center window is divided up into two main sections.

The sidebar on the left lists the different security programs that are running on your computer and in the main window you’ll find a list of Security essentials, with status reports for each one.

The status reports work like traffic lights, so green is good, amber shows something that might need attention and red denotes a danger that needs to be rectified immediately.

Click on the down arrows next to the traffic lights to see more details and more options.

5. Scan for spyware

For specific security tasks, go to Start > Control Panel > Security.

Here you can also run a check for any spyware or other malicious software. To do this, click Scan for spyware and other unwanted software. Windows Defender will search your PC for malware.

Once the scan has finished, Defender will present you with its results. If it has found any suspicious software, Defender will ask you what you’d like to do with it. The safest option is to click Remove.

6. Configure user accounts

With Vista’s parental controls you can make sure that all the valuable files and settings on our PC are kept safe. To use the parental control features, you’ll need to set up separate accounts for everyone who uses your PC. The default user account in Vista is ‘Administrator’, which allows you to alter settings, as such it’s only really suitable for adult users.

Go to Start > Control Panel and under the ‘User Accounts and Family Safety’ heading, click on Add or Remove User Accounts. A warning screen may appear at this point. Click Continue. In the Manage Accounts screen, click on the Create new account link. Type the name of the person into the box, ensure Standard user is selected and click on Create account.

7. Parental controls

With all the requisite user accounts created, go to Start Control Panel and under the ‘User Accounts and Family Safety’ heading, click on Set up parental controls for any user. If a warning screen appears, click Continue.

From the list of users that appears next, click on the name of the person you require.

The next screen contains all the different parental control features that you can switch on for that user. First, put a check next to where it says ‘On, enforce current settings’.

Your computer can keep a record of the user’s activity so that you can find out things like how long the person used the computer for, which programs they used, which websites they visited, which blocked sites they tried to access and so on.

To switch this feature on, put a check next to ‘On, collect information about computer usage’ under the Activity. Reporting heading. Under Windows Settings, you’ll also find a number of other parental control options. Use these to filter unsuitable websites and set usage time limits or block access to programs and unsuitable games. When you have finished, click on OK to confirm your selections.

8. Change your desktop

To change the appearance of Vista right click on your computer desktop and click Personalize.

Click Desktop then Browse and browse to the picture you want to set as your desktop image, double click on the picture.

Now select how the picture should appear, then click OK.

9. Magnify Windows

To make it easier to use Windows click Start > Control Panel > Personalization.

Click Ease of Access on the left hand side of the resulting window.

From here you can launch a Magnifier tool.

This will magnify the area of the screen that your cursor is pointing at and display it in a window at the top of the screen.

10. Adjust mouse settings

To change the appearance of your mouse click Start > Control Panel > Personalization.

Click Ease of Access on the left hand side of the resulting window.

Click the blue link that says Make mouse easier to use.

Tick to select how you’d like your cursor to appear onscreen ‘Extra large black‘, for example.

11. Customise the Taskbar

The taskbar is the greyed out area at the bottom of your screen where you’ll see notifications about programs that need updating as well as information about your network status or your battery life (if you’re using a laptop).

To customize the taskbar click Start > Control Panel > Taskbar and Start menu.

From here you can change the appearance of the taskbar by choosing to hide or unhide it, keep the taskbar on top of other windows and whether you want to group similar buttons together.

12. Customise the Start Bar

To customize the Vista Start bar, click Start > Control Panel > Taskbar and Start menu. Click on the Start Menu tab. From here you can choose to revert to the Classic view of Windows or use the new-look Vista Start menu.

Click Customize to further change the appearance of the Start menu. Alter how pictures look in Vista You can change the colour and appearance of windows within Vista. To do this, click Start > Control Panel > Personalization. Here you can choose whether to make windows transparent or to change the colour of windows.

13. Install Windows updates

It’s essential for the security and performance of your computer that you download all Vista’s updates as soon as they’re released. Make sure that automatic updates are switched on by clicking Start > Control Panel > Windows Update. 

Click the button labelled Install Updates to download any available updates. Click change settings on the left-hand side of the window and then ensure that the button marked ‘Install updates automatically (recommended)’ is ticked.

14. View system information

To see information on the version of Vista you’re using, click Start > Control Panel > System. 

Here you’ll see information about the version of Vista you’re using. You can also press Windows key + break

15. Add your Home Folder to Desktop

In XP, it is possible to display the My Documents folder on the desktop.  While the technique described below is also available in XP, however, in Vista ‘Show On Desktop’ is more spectacular.

Click Start
Right Click Username
Select ‘Show on Desktop‘
Return to the desktop and admire the new icon; it looks like a diary or an organizer and it contains a dozen folders, not just the Documents.

16. Resize Desktop Icons

Before I tackle the shortcut keys, here is a trick with mouse.  Hold down the ‘Ctrl‘ key and scroll the mouse wheel.  See how the Vista Desktop Icons resize.  You can also try this Ctrl +Scroll wheel trick in Windows Explorer.

The Ctrl key and the mouse wheel also resize fonts and pictures in Internet Explorer (IE7).

17. Disable User Account Control (UAC)

Contrary to popular belief, User Account Control (UAC) is actually quite a good thing because it increases the security of the computer and makes it harder for viruses, spyware and adware to get into the system, and we all want more of that. However, it can also be a source of irritation if you frequently change Windows settings because it pops up a warning message on the screen every time you try to do something. It can also cause problems when running software that was designed for Windows XP in Vista. If you have tried running a program in Vista and it won’t work properly you should try it without UAC enabled and you may find it’s OK.

To turn off UAC click Start, Control Panel and switch to Classic View. Double click User Accounts and then click Turn User Account Control on or off. Clear the tickbox and click OK. You will need to restart Windows in order for the change to take effect.

18. Show me the menu
If you open an Explorer window in XP you will see a menu at the top that enables you to access various functions, such as cut, copy, paste, list view, details view, and many more. If you open an Explorer window in Vista though, click Start, Computer, for example, you won’t see a menu at the top of the window.

Most of the time you don’t need a menu because you can access the functions in other ways. For example, you can right click files or folders and access cut, copy, and paste functions and so on.

However, you do need the menu if you want to change Explorer’s settings because the menu option isn’t available elsewhere (actually it’s in the Control Panel, but it’s a hassle going there).

To display the menu bar in an Explorer window, just tap the Alt key on the keyboard. The menu will appear so you can select a menu option and then it will disappear from view afterwards.

19. Show hidden files and folders
You can view the files and folders on the hard disk drive using Explorer. Just click Start, Computer and then double click the disk you want to view. Not all the files on a disk are visible though and some are hidden from view. These are usually ones that Windows thinks you don’t need to access, but sometimes you do, especially when you want to configure certain options and perform certain other advanced tasks.

It is easy to show these hidden files though. Open an Explorer window and tap the Alt key to show the menu. Then select Folder Options on the Tools menu (it’s the same Folder Options that you can access from the Control Panel), and click the View tab. Select Show hidden files and folders, and then clear the tick against Hide protected operating system files. Click OK and previously hidden files will be shown in the Explorer window.

20. How to open the command prompt from anywhere in Windows Explorer
You can open up the command prompt from any location using Windows Explorer. On the menu located on the left-hand side of the Windows Explorer window hold down Shift and right-click on the folder you want the command prompt to open up at. Select Open Command Window Here and the command prompt will open.

21. Generate a system health report to quickly identify problems with your PCIf you want to make sure that your PC is working correctly, you can use the tools included with Windows Vista to give you an easy to understand overview of your computer’s ‘health’ – and any problems, such as lack of space on your hard drive or out-of-date drivers, will be helpfully highlighted.

To create a report open up the Start menu and go to Control Panel > System & Maintenance > Performance Information and Tools. Click on Advanced tools on the left-hand side of the window and select Generate a system health report.

22. Stop the UAC from blacking out your desktop

In the Business, Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows Vista open the Start menu and type in gpedit.msc into the search box, and press Enter.

On the left-hand menu click to expand Computer Configuration and navigate to Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options. In the policies window on the right scroll down to the User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation policy and double-click it. Change the option to Disabled and then click OK.

23. Increase SATA drive performance.

This tip “enhances” drive performance by allowing the drive in question to perform more write caching to system memory. The danger is if your system loses power and you do not have a backup power source (UPS), whatever data is cached to system memory will be lost. If you’re the adventurous type and want a bit more responsiveness out of your system, click Start, type Device Manager in the Search box, click the Device Manager, open up the Disk drives tree, right-click a drive, and select Properties. Go to the Policies tab and check “Enable Advanced Performance.” Click OK. 

24. More widescreen Vista wallpapers.

When Microsoft went shopping for panoramic, widescreen wallpapers for Vista, it tapped Hamad Darwish to shoot some photos. Some of his photos made it into the initial shipping version of Vista, but many did not. Now Darwish is offering all of them for download, absolutely free – click here.

25. Speed up Flip3D

This tip will be useful for notebook owners or anyone whose PC is packing less than stellar graphics processing power. The Flip3D animation can bog down weaker graphics cards if it has to flip a lot of windows, so this is a tweak that lets you set the number of windows that will be rendered in 3D at one time.

• Click on the Start Button, type regedit in the Search bar, and press Enter.

• Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, and DWM.

• Create a new DWORD and call it Max3DWindows.

• Set the value of this to something between four and nine (“4” and “9”) depending on the performance of your card (a higher number requires more video card power). You should then feel free to experiment to find the best value for your computer. Restart your PC to finalize the change.

26. Discover what applications are linked to certain processes.

The Processes tab of the Windows XP Task Manager was a confusing, barren wasteland of cryptically-named processes. If you wanted to find out which application was responsible for a certain process, all you could do was to copy down the name of the executable, and then search for it in Windows to locate it or Google it. This was an annoying process. Thankfully, Microsoft has fixed this in Vista by adding an “open file location” option when you right-click any process. Doing so opens the folder the process is running from, which can help you figure out if a certain process can be turned off or not.

You can also click “View” at the top of the Task Manager and click Select Columns to select which columns to display.

27. Stretch your wallpaper across two displays.

We love our dual displays, but we don’t like staring at two instances of the same image all day. Thankfully, Vista lets us stretch our wallpaper across both displays quite easily. This was also possible in XP, but it was not an intuitive process. Keep in mind, however, that stretching an image across two displays obviously requires a picture that is large enough to stretch all the way across both displays, so you’ll need to add up the resolution of both displays and find an image that is of those dimensions.

Right-click the desktop, select Personalize, and then Desktop Background. Select your image, and then select the middle option for “tile” to stretch it across both displays.  

28. Turn off unneeded Windows features.

This one is self-explanatory. Do you need Tablet PC components installed? Probably not, unless you are using a Tablet PC. So turn off whatever you don’t need in the name of keeping your Windows install as lean as possible.

Click Start, Control Panel, then under Programs at the bottom click “Uninstall a Program.” In the left-hand pane you’ll see “Turn Windows Features on or off.” Uncheck whatever you don’t need. 

29. Enable Aero mouse pointers.

Microsoft made new Aero-based mouse pointers for Vista, but the default mouse pointer is the old 3D white scheme. To enable the new mouse pointers and animations, right-click the desktop, select Personalize, then Mouse Pointers. Click on the drop-down box under the word Scheme, and select Windows Aero (system scheme). Click OK. 

30. Make XP computers show up in your network map.

Vista uses a new protocol named Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) to display a network “map” of all computers in a network, but the protocol is only in Vista, so XP computers do not show up in this map.

Microsoft has generously released the software for XP, and it must be installed on an XP machine for it to show up in the Vista map. Click here to download the software for Windows XP SP2. 

31. Start applications on specific CPU and priority

There is a great little utility that has been around for ages in Windows called the start command. This dos command allows you to start any process with advanced settings.  In Windows Vista it is perfect if you want to start an application and tell windows to only run it on one CPU and at a high priority level.  For example, let’s say that you want to start Microsoft Paint and have it run on your second CPU core at Above Normal priority. The command below will accomplish this:

start /affinity 2 /abovenormal mspaint.exe

You can customize the command above and replace the 2 with the processor number (in hex) that you want the processor to run on. You can also adjust the priority level by using one of the flags below:

    * /Low
    * /Normal
    * /High
    * /Realtime
    * /Abovenormal
    * /Belownormal

32. Increase max IE7 downloads

Internet Explorer 7 only allows you to download two files from the same server at a time.  This is not a software limit but rather a limit imposed based on the web standard. Since this is simply a software setting, it can be modified and you can increase the limit to something much high such as 10.  Follow the steps below to increase your max downloads from the same server:

1. Click on the Start Button and type in Regedit.
2. When Registry Editor loads navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion and Internet Settings.
3. Right click on MaxConnectionsPerServer and select Modify. Set the decimal value to something greater than 2.
4. Right click on MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server and select Modify. Set the decimal value to something greater than 2.
5. Reboot.

33. Instantly copy a path to the Clipboard

Have you ever wanted to obtain a copy of the path of a file nested deep down in your hard drive’s organization structure? If so, you know the drill, launch Windows Explorer, traverse the directory to the file, select the contents of the address bar, copy the path, paste it in Notepad, and then type the filename itself.

Fortunately, with Windows Vista, you no longer have to perform such acrobatics just to get the path to a file. All you have to do is hold down the [Shift] key, right-click on the file or folder, and select the new command titled Copy as Path, as shown in Figure G. When you do, the path to the file or folder is copied to the Clipboard and you can simply paste it anywhere you want.

Creating a shortcut to switch the active user is as easy as creating a shortcut to c:windowssystem32tsdiscon.exe

1. Right click where you want the shortcut to be created and select New and then Shortcut.
2. Copy and paste “c:windowssystem32tsdiscon.exe” into the location box and hit Next.
3. Give it a name and hit Finish.

live.sysinternals.comtoolstoolname.exe

For example if you want to run Autoruns (a great program to see what starts up automatically) type live.sysinternals.comtoolsautoruns.exe and hit Enter.

Every Sysinternals utility is available for “live” use.

Windows and 1 opens the shortcut next to the button (usually Show Desktop), Windows and 2 opens the second shortcut (usually Flip 3D) and so on. To add or rearrange shortcuts, just click and drag them.

43. Disable unwanted services

Click start and type services.msc in the search field

Then use the following website as a guide http://www.speedyvista.com/services5min.php

44. System File Checker

Something messed up in your Windows install? Vista has a system checker that will check your files against the install media.

• Open an Admin Command Prompt (right click on cmd, and select run as Administrator)
• type ’sfc /scannow’
• insert vista DVD
• checks against Vista DVD

Enter www.techsupport.me.uk into your mobile and you will see a nice mobile browser low bandwidth firendly version of the site. To have a look now click the link in the navigation bar above.

I purchased a 4 gig OCZ Rally2 USB drive from Amazon for £25 and tested several Linux operating systems, using the guides at www.pendrivelinux.com.

I also wanted to get Beryl (now Compiz) working on the stick. I tried Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy, 7.04 Feisty, 6.10 and 6.06 – however Compiz only partially worked on some of them and each were very slow to boot. Also my network card was only detected in 7.10 which seamed to hang on the grub loader then kick into life(bout 3 min boot time).

I then tried pendrivelinux’s version of Mandriva http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2008/02/13/pendrivelinux-2008-install-from-windows/ – the install was fast and painless and the boot time was 30 – 45 seconds which is great!

The best thing about this OS build was the amount of software already installed and all my hardware “just worked” on both my laptop and my desktop – even Bluetooth and wireless worked straight out of the box.

Compiz comes pre-installed too with Intel and ATI drivers, so all I needed to do was install the NVIDIA driver and I was all set!

I now find myself using the USB pendrive more than my installed operating system because of the speed and flexibility. Big thanks to www.pendrivelinux.com!