Restore missing recycle bin icon to desktop in Windows Vista

If you use the computer a lot you probably need to use the recycle bin a lot as well. But sometimes you might find that the recycle bin is missing from the desktop because you have accidentally deleted it. This can be quite bothersome if you want to keep your desktop neat and clean and get rid of all the unnecessary files on your computer. This wasn't much of a problem in Windows XP, however things have changed in Windows Vista and it is possible to accidentally delete the recycle bin icon. Here’s a quick and easy way that you can use to get it back.

How to put the recycle bin icon back on your desktop

1. Right-click on the desktop and click Personalize
2. Under the 'Tasks' list on the left hand side click Change desktop icons
   
3. In the window that pops up check the checkbox beside 'Recycle bin' and click OK.

Now the recycle bin icon should be placed back on your desktop. And in case you accidentally delete the recycle bin icon again now you know how to fix it.

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Taking screenshots of web pages

Ever wondered how people can take a screenshot of a whole web-page without having to take multiple screenshots of your browser windows and patching them up together? Well the technique of taking screenshots of web pages is very simple. The most simples method involves using extensions with FireFox, however other methods do exist out there.

Method 1: Using Firefox

Firefox is a very versatile web-browser that can do most things better than other browsers can. However, the most important thing that sets it apart from using is its capability of having extensions that can be added-on to the browser to customize it even more and allow you to do much more than what an ordinary browser.

1. Page Saver - As the name implies, this extension allows you to save a page onto your desktop as a picture. Pearl Crescent offer a Pro and Basic version of the extension, although the basic version should suffice for most users. It is also available in many languages.

2. Screen Grab - This is a nifty little extension that although doesn't have as many features as Page Saver has, it does the job quite nicely. Also, it doesn't have as many options as Page Saver has in terms of choosing a file format to save it as.

Method 2: Using a Downloadable Application

1. Paparazzi (Mac Only!) - A downloadable application that allows you to take screenshots of web-pages and has a user interface. If you want to use a command line interface instead (or rather show of your uber cool typing skills) you might want to check out webkit2png.

2. Webpage Capture - A free little tool that allows you to capture HTML as BMP, GIF, JPG or PNG images and at the same time allows you to create thumbnails of web pages too. The free version does place a logo at the top though, however that can easily be removed with a image editing program.

3. WebShot - A user interface oriented application that goes to a website, captures the screenshot and saves it in a specified location. Not exactly intuitive but it works never the less.

Method 3: Use an Online Website

1. Browser Shots - A great service used mostly by web-designers to verify if their website design works in a specific web browser. You too can use this to grab screen captures of web pages. This site allows you to choose many different options such as the screensize, colour depth, disabling javascript (so that no 'funny things' pop up while your screen capture of the website is being taken) etc.

2. BrowsrCamp - This website, also primarily created for web designers allows one to see a website as it is displayed on Safari. It is usually used for testing purposes by poor designers who can't afford to buy a mac (like me) to verify if their website works in safari properly, but who says you can't use it to get a screenshot of a website for posting it onto a blog. Plus you can choose between high quality / low quality JPG and PNG formats.

As you can see, there are a lot of choices to pick and choose from. So next time if you see something interesting on a web-page and would like to show it to the world. Take a screenshot of the whole page instead of just a window like I did once. And just may be they won't say that it was 'Photoshopped'.

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Enable/Disable low disk space error message in Windows

Are you tired of Windows XP or may be even Vista asking you over and over again to free up space on your hard disk drive? Then you can either do one of two things, clean up the junk on your computer or disable the message that pops-up at the most inopportune time altogether. This article deals with the latter, if you want to clear unnecessary files that you computer doesn't really need then refer to the remove junk from your PC post.

The most critical fact that you need to keep in mind is that what you are about to play around with is a very powerful tool. This article tells you how to back up your windows registry. Keep in mind that one wrong click in the Windows registry or even a little typo can render your system incaple of even starting up. So BACK UP THE REGISTRY!.

Oh and you'll need an account with administrator privileges in order to do the following:

1. Log in with your administrator account
2. Press the Windows Key along with the R letter key on your keyboard. Alternatively you can click on Start and click Run.
3. Type in Regedit in the box that opens
4. Using the column on the left hand side click on the little plus sign to the left of HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then Software, followed by Microsoft (you'll have to scroll down a little bit) > Windows > Current Version > Policies> Explorer
5. Double click on NoLowDiskSpaceChecks
6. If low disk space checking is enabled, then the value in the box that pops up will be 1. Change this value to 0 and click OK.
7. To enable the option again, go back to the same area listed in step 4 double click NoLowDiskSpaceChecks and click ok.

At this point your screen should look something like this:

If it does then go ahead and restart your computer. Once you restart, say bye bye to low disk space errors! But remember, windows will function a whole lot better if you get rid of the junk on your PC.

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Free up disk space and get rid of junk on your PC

It is a well known fact that computers tend to get slower as time goes by and so does the hard drive space. If you're in such a situation then here are a couple of things you can do to get rid of all the junk on your Windows XP or Vista computer. Additionally, the speed at which the computer will run at will also significantly improve. These tips area also especially useful if you're getting those low disk space errors.

Option 1: Using Disk Cleanup

The first and foremost thing that you can do to clean up the junk on your system without downloading anything is use the appropriately named built-in utility in Windows (both XP and Vista have this) known as Disk Cleanup.

To access this click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. A window will pop-up saying that it is looking for Junk in your Hard Drive. If you have one or more hard drives or partitions, Windows will then ask you a partition to choose.


Once Windows finishes doing this, it will show you an overview of the junk/unnecessary files on your PC. You can then pick and choose the things that you dont need and click OK. I usually delete all the files Windows thinks is not necessary for normal functioning. However, sometimes doing so is not a good idea. So, my advice is that if you are running this tool for the first time, go through all the options and read what it says in the box below.


If you want to delete more things, switch to the More Options Tab where you can delete system restore files etc. But don't get too excited that you'll be able to reclaim a lot of space and delete all the restore files, if you do so then you might not be able to recover your system to a working state in case of a problem.

Option 2: Using Crap Cleaner (CCleaner)

Crap Cleaner (also known as CCleaner...) is a much more powerful application that can delete a whole lot more from your system. And, if you use browsers such as Firefox, it can help you even delete the cookies that are associated with Firefox, which of course Disk Cleaner is incapable of doing.

Using CCleaner is dead simple. All you need to do once you download the application (you can download it here is open it and choose the things you would like to delete. One thing you might want to keep in mind during installation is that the CCleaner installer at one point asks you if you want to install the yahoo toolbar. If you blindly click yes then it will install it for you, so if you're like me and don't want any additional toolbars you might want to pay attention while installing it.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the interface is very trivial. Simply click Analyze for CCleaner to take a sneak peek at your data and then click Run Cleaner to delete the Junk on your system. You can also use CCleaner to delete unnecessary registry entries for more information on doing so refer to my post on the real way to keep the Windows registry tidy. Also, please BACK UP THE REGISTRY before you use the delete unnecessary registry features.

BONUS TIP: If you have just invested in a new windows computer, especially if it is a Dell or Sony or a computer from an OEM you might want to get rid of the junk that comes with it. To do so please take a look at my post on how to delete junk that comes with a new computer.

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Four great multi-protocol chat clients

May be you too have a great deal of friends dispersed over many different chat protocols and it is imperative that you talk to them regularly to keep in touch. If so then you might be looking for a multi-protocol chat client (a chat client that can be used on any network), that is to say a chat client that can connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk (Jabber) and even ICQ (does anyone even use ICQ anymore?).

All the applications mentioned below are free and open source and can be customized to any taste you like. Each one has its own plus points and negative points, so choose wisely before you start using any of them. One key thing you need to keep in mind before you start using any of these messaging clients is that you wont be able to use the features each protocol offers to its fullest.

What I mean by that is, for example MSN has a feature where you can 'nudge' your friends if you're in a hurry to receive a reply. However with these messaging clients you'll need to install special plug-ins to do that before you can start chatting.

Trillian Basic (Windows Only, for now anyway) - This little application will allow you to chat on MSN, Yahoo IM, AIM, and even IRC with the least amount of configuration. It has a wide array of customizable skins and plug-ins that you can install quite easily. It's bigger brother Trillian Pro is a paid application but you'll most likely wont need the additional features if you're just going to use AIM or MSN. The upcoming version of Trillian, Trillian Astra has a host of other features and works on a Mac, iPhone and is accessible through a web-interface.


Adium (Mac Only) - Hands down the best multi-protocol application on a mac (even superior to its Windows twins for that matter). It can connect to pretty much any protocol out there and almost every little part of this application is tweakable. Take a look at Adium Xtras to get a glimpse of the customization options in this great application. If you're fortunate enough to be able to use a Mac as your computer, Adium should be your chat client.


Pidgin IM (Windows and Linux) - This is great for people who want to chat with everyone but don't really care about the look and customization abilities of their chat client. It supports

• AIM
• Bonjour
• Gadu-Gadu
• Google Talk
• Groupwise
• ICQ
• IRC
• MSN
• MySpaceIM
• QQ
• SILC
• SIMPLE
• Sametime
• XMPP
• Yahoo!
• Zephyr

If that's all you need then Pidgin IM is the choice for you. If you want to customize your chat client a little more you'll want to get Miranda.

Miranda IM - This is the ultimate small, lightweight, cuztomizable multi-protocol chat client if and only if you are ready to spend 30 minutes configuring the chat client. If you're comfortable with the default look and the default features of the application then you'll love this light weight client.


However, if you want the client to look a little better and function with several other protocols you'll have spend a lot of time in getting Miranda to behave the way you want it to. I personally find it a bit cumbersome to download a lot of plug-ins, many of which should have already been included in Miranda and wasting my time customizing it before I can even use it. But if you have a lot of time on your hands then Miranda is your best bet.

It works with AIM, MSN, Yahoo and ICQ. It can also work with Google talk and other protocols if you're willing to install the plug-in for it.

So there you have it. Now you can use 1 single application to reach out to thousands of people across the globe without having to use and configure a gazillion different applications.

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Add a rating feature to your blog posts

Ever wonder what your blog readers think about your blog? May be they like your posts or may be they don't find it all too interesting. Most blogs have a comments feature, however due to the laziness factor in most readers on the internet today people seldom leave a comment if a post is great, beneficial or if the post needs improvement. In that case the only way to find out is to let your blog readers rate your post.

If your readers like your post, naturally the rating will be higher. If they don't then I guess you'll have to write about something else or blog about a different topic. Essentially, adding a 'post rating' option can help you improve the quality of your blog by leaps and bounds.

If you are lucky enough to have your own domain and use the Wordpress CMS system, you'll probably be aware of the post rating plug-ins for wordpress. However, if you use other content management systems such as blogger you'll need something more. The simplest, easiest and free solution that I know of so far is called outbrain ratings widget. It's a great free service that allows you to add the 'star post ratings' feature to pretty much all major blogging systems including Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress, Drupal and even FeedFlare (which is a service offered by FeedBurner).


You can even sign-up and even track the ratings for all your posts which is not available in any plug in I've seen so far.

Cool, huh? All you need to do is go to the outbrain website and click on the appropriate button and it'll let you know what you ought to do.

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A quick easy way to create photo slideshows on Windows

What is the first application that pops into your mind when someone says 'Photo Slideshow or Picture Presentation'. It's probably going to be Windows Movie Maker (or it might be iMovie if you are a Mac user), right?

Well, sure, movie maker works just fine but when it comes to doing photos you can do the very same thing in half the time it takes you to do in movie maker. Plus your video is going to look considerably different from regular Windows Movie Maker slideshows. It's called Windows PhotoStory 3.

PhotoStory 3 is a great from Microsoft for the less computer savvy individuals to take advantage of their digital pictures and turn them into something worth looking at. Of course, you can just e-mail pictures of your vacation to Maui but what if you wan to impress your friends a bit more by adding narration, music and captions.


It's as simple as choosing a couple of pictures, adding some transitions and music and exporting it to send to your friends and relatives. Or you can keep it in your computer to cherish the memories from your trip.

This little application has the ability to add in interesting (although not breathtaking) transitions between pictures and along with that create your own music to suit the mood and atmosphere the pictures depict. You truly can bring your photos to life and share them with someone.

For more information on how to use this program check out the PhotoStory 3 page at Microsoft.

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