Vito Cassisi has written a guide on his blog for anyone out there looking to build a decent PC for under $1000 (that’s Australian dollars, folks). I’m sure there’s plenty of people out there looking to save cash (I know I’m a cheapskate). Go ahead and check it out:
Our website contains many tutorials that require editing the Windows Registry. Rather than summarizing the process in every article, I thought it might be better to make a more in-depth exploration separately. In this tutorial, I will explain what the Windows Registry is, how to edit its contents and the risks associated with doing so.
In the early days of Windows, applications would often store their configuration data in text documents called initialization files. Typically, these files would use an extension like .ini, .txt, .cfg, etc. One of the major problems with this particular system was that with the sheer number of applications installed, the .ini files would become scattered across the file system, making them difficult to track. After the release of Windows 95, in an effort to further standardize and manage configuration for applications and Windows, Microsoft encouraged software developers to use the Windows Registry as an alternative to INI files for storing configuration data. In the years that followed, the Windows Registry became the standard repository for application settings. Continue reading
Originally published in 2008
On Windows XP and up, it is possible to hide user accounts from both the Welcome Screen and the User Accounts control panel. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how. I’m sure people have various reasons for wanting to do this, so here we go.
The first thing you want to do is head to the Control Panel and create the user you want to hide, if you haven’t done so already. I’m calling mine Secret Account. It’s important to take not of the exact name of the account, including character case, because we’ll need to use it later.
Notice that the account is shown in the User Accounts control panel. This is normal, of course. Continue reading
Originally published in 2008
In this tutorial, I’ll discuss disabling and configuring User Account Control (UAC) on Windows Vista, along with the pros and cons of doing so.
User Account Control, or UAC as it’s often called, is arguably the most controversial feature of Windows Vista. It’s also probably fair to say that it’s Vista’s most misunderstood feature.
UAC prompts you with a ‘click-ok-to-continue’-like dialog whenever you do certain actions. This is often interpreted as “Are you sure you want to run this program?” or “Are you an administrator?”, which isn’t quite the case. This prompting behaviour can be jarring for users, as it deviates from the behaviour of previous versions of Windows. Being constantly asked to confirm your actions can be frustrating for users new to the Vista platform. Because of this, many users choose to disable the UAC system all together, and it has become a main point of criticism for Vista. Continue reading
After a brief absence, we’re back online. I’ve decided to move from our custom CMS to WordPress just to make things easier. The move allows us to focus more on content than site development, and you guys can leave comments now.
We might drag some of our older content out of the cupboard, but for the most part, we’ll be starting fresh. Should see some new articles soon, so stick around.
