AppAholic TechRant

I frequently read about people complaining about various aspects of the Windows operating system. Usually I agree with them. However, I did find a neat little trick that Windows can pull out of it’s rear end which is rather useful. Mac users and Windows skiners may be familiar with this concept…

A DOCK!

If you don’t know what I’m on about, it is a little bar of icons at the bottom (or other side) of the screen where you can launch your frequently used applications from.

Yes Windows does have one build in. OK, so it isn’t anywhere near as good as Apple’s glorious creation. Neither does it compare to the similar applications for Windows. BUT – it is very simple to do, and requires no installation, thus absolutely minimal impact on your system performance.

So how, I hear you cry, does one atchieve this feat? Here’s how…

1. Make sure your taskbar is not locked (Righ click on it, make sure the checkbox isn’t ticked)
2. Drag your taskbar up so that it is twice as high as normal
3. Create a folder somewhere, say in My Documents, and call it something like ‘Shortcuts’
4. Create a new toolbar in the taskbar (Right click, toolbars, new toolbar…)
5. Find your ‘Shortcuts’ folder
6. Drag the little handle on the side of your toolbar so that you can move it to the bottom
7. Your toolbar will now be at the bottom of the screen
8. Right click your toolbar and untick the option for ‘Show Text’
9. Do the same for ‘Show Title’
10. Finally, right click and change the ‘View’ to ‘Large Icons’
11. Remember to lock the taskbar again after.

Yes, I know that it looks nothing like the dock on a Mac, but it is jut as useful.

What is nice about this feature is that you can drag and drop icons for anything (program shortcuts, folders, files, URLs etc) onto it, and they pop right up. Simple, easy, and it fits in with whatever Windows theme you decide to use.

As some of you know, the Asus EeePC 701 was reviewed a few months back by TechRant’s own Linux Geek.  Now you may think that all Netbooks are practically the same, but they are very different.  Since the OLPC program was launched and the EeePC released to children in developing countries (via the Give 1 Get One Program), several manufacturers have tried to grab their share of the market by releasing notebooks in various sizes and colours. 

Though similar in size ranging from 7″ models to 10.2″, they have different hardware specs (though a majority are similar).  The Samsung NC10 runs on the newly developed Intel atom architecture boasting a clock speed of 1.6GHz of Hyper-threading goodness.  The EeePC 701 has a Celeron M 353 under its hood clocking at 0.9GHz. 

Memory wise, the NC10 has a 1GB of RAM as standard whereas the EeePC has only half of that.  Both netbooks come with XP preinstalled (Though a linux version is available for the EeePC, but to make things fair, I will compare the XP versions).  Having only half a gig of RAM may make the netbook rather sluggish at running multiple applications though luckily RAM is user upgradable on both netbooks.

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Google’s slogan has always been, “Do no evil”, and I have to say, they’ve lived up to their slogan in the 3 years I’ve been a fan of their work. Their web applications have blown me away just as much as their desktop applications.  Of course, not many of you would believe me if I told you about my theory that Google are secretly just planning to take over the world. Trust me! In a couple of decades, Google will be amongst the World-Leaders in part of the International Government. I can’t wait for the television ads; “Search your Brain for your deepest and fondest memories! Coming soon!”. Meh.. I digress.

So, let’s talk about Google’s latest step towards global-domination; Google Chrome. That’s right, Google have decided that having most of the Internet at their beck-and-call isn’t enough anymore, they’ve released their own special Browser for you to use it with!

Of course, Google can’t just throw a browser out there which can be comparable to Firefox.. Right?! Well, it’s a matter of taste, actually…

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Ever come across someone asking for help, saying they’ve forgotten their windows password. Naturally, this is a bit of a problem. I personally have never ran across this problem, however I’m sure someone has.

There is hope however, as long as the user hasn’t encrypted the password using the windows built in encryption. In that case, one would have to crack the password, which may be a tad difficult.

Ok, so you wanna learn how to recover your forgotten windows password? Well, I was reading an article on “The How To Geek”, about it just the other day, and the procedure seems rather simple.

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