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Coupon Chief is brilliant - you name it, there’s a discount there somewhere. Being a student, this is great because you can get cheap stuff at discount prices. Say you want to buy a new computer or buy some hedge clippers for your partner for example (actually I wouldn’t recommend it, buying your partner some flowers would be better), you can get a knocked-down price from this site. However if you want to shop at Amazon.com, you can go through the “Shops” section of the site and find discounts for that shop but not necessarily for any particular item - any student or tight-arse out there who wants to save a few pennies, go to Coupon Chief.

Mapping a drive to an FTP folder is a long process, but it’s worthwhile. If you regularly upload and download files to and from a web server, you’ll most likely be using FTP. This way, you can have a shortcut in your Computer window letting you have easy access to your online files.

1. Go to  Start, then Computer.
2. Click on Map Network Drive at the top menu bar.
3. Select the Connect to a website that you can use to store your documents and pictures link.
4. Click the Next button when the new wizard appears.
5. Select Choose a custom network location then select Next.
6. Enter in the FTP address of your server, in the form of ftp:// then select Next.
7. Uncheck the box that says Log on anonymously, then enter in your username for your FTP server, then hit Next.
8. Enter in a name for the server which will appear in Computer, then select Next.
9. Click Finish.

From now on, you can view your FTP server’s files in Computer.

You can access your home folder (displayed in your Start menu by your logon name) from your Start menu but why not have it on your desktop?

1. Go to Start and right click your home folder (at the top right, and it’s displayed as your username).
2. Select Show on Desktop.

That’s it - your home folder is now on your desktop!

It’s really simple to change your password. Simply logon to the account you want to change the password with, then complete the following:

1. Hold Ctrl+Alt and press Delete.
2. Select Change a password.
3. In the second box down, type in the old password.
4. In the third box down, type in the new password.
5. In the fourth box down, type in the new password again.
6. Press the blue circular button.
7. Press the Cancel button.

Sick of that annoying orange flower? It’s really simple to change your user account picture. Simply logon to the account you want to change the image, then complete the following:

1. Go to Start, then Control Panel.
2. Double click on User Accounts near the bottom of the window.
3. Click on Change your picture.
4. Choose a new picture, or if you want to select a saved image, click on Browse for more pictures….
5. Click Change Picture.
6. Close the User Accounts window.

Do you have a problem with certain websites loading very slowly? Google around a bit and you’ll find you’re not the only one. Microsoft’s new network stack has had a number of different problems, most of them caused by the rest of the world not being completely up-to-date with the latest standards (backwards compatibility, who needs it!). This problem is no exception.A recent Microsoft Knowledgebase article describes one potential cause of the problem: RFC 1323 compliance. Though the text suggests that it just affects the Enterprise version, the Applies To section lists all versions of Vista. In a nutshell, websites that don’t fully support RFC 1323 or the default Windows Scaling factor of 8 will be very slow or even unaccessible. There is a workaround!

1. Go to Start, type in cmd at the Search bar, then hold Ctrl+Shift and press Enter.
2. At the command prompt, type in and press Enter after each one:
   
   • netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted
   • netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal 
   • netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable

3. Close the command prompt by typing exit then pressing the Enter key.

Instead of showing the green loading bar whilst Windows boots up, you can change it to more relevant boot information. This gives crash analysts a better idea of what might not be loading or working when a computer stalls whilst bootup.

1. Go to Start, and in the Search bar, type in msconfig then press Enter.
2. Click on the Boot tab and tick the box which says OS boot information.
3. Close the program, and select Don’t restart.

Next time you restart, it’ll show you vital boot information of whats loading and when.

Ever dream of having the Address bar in your taskbar, so you can jump to any website or local/network folder location instantly? It can be done, and quite easily thank goodness.

With a bit of reshuffling and repositioning, you can get it to the perfect place in your taskbar. Just do the following:

1. Right click an empty space in the taskbar, and make sure that Lock the Taskbar is unchecked.
2. Right click an empty space in the taskbar again and hover over Toolbars, and then click on Address.
3. Reposition the Address bar to your customisation.

The Telnet client isn’t installed by default in Vista, but it’s still included. You can easily install it from the Windows Features menu as well as plenty of other things.

1. Go to Start, then Control Panel.
2. Double click on Programs and Features.
3. In the left hand pane, select Turn Windows features on or off.
4. Scroll down to Telnet Client and make sure the tick box is checked.

   You may have to wait a minute or two for Windows to finish installing the client.

5. Once it’s done, close down the Programs and Features window.
6. You can now find the Telnet Client in the Start menu, simply type in telnet in the Search bar.

Internet time servers keep your Windows clock up to date and almost perfect with international standards. Vista has 4 preset Internet time servers, one hosted at Microsoft. To synchronise, you need an Internet connection at any speed.

1. Click once on the clock in the notification area of your taskbar.
2. Click on Change date and time settings.
3. On this new dialog, select the Internet time tab, then click Change settings.
4. Tick the first box on the screen, then select the Update now button to update your time.

   If one sever doesn’t work, then try selecting a different server from the drop down menu.

5. Once it works, it’ll tell you that your time has been updated.
6. Close all your open windows.

Some files shouldn’t really be messed around with, but if you’re an advanced user and you need to edit something within the Windows core file system, then here’s how to find the setting to get there.

1. Open Windows Explorer (the best place is your hard drive through Computer).
2. Click Organise, choose Folder and Search Options.
3. In the View tab, select Hidden files and folders, untick Hide extensions for known file types, and untick Hide protected operating system files. If a dialog comes up at any point, select Yes.
4. Click Apply then OK.

Your hidden files become very much visible.

Windows has this nifty utility which lets you save your password onto a disk in case you ever forget it. You can save your password on external drives, flash disks, even iPods and memory sticks.

To create your password reset disk:

1. Login to the account that you wish to backup the password from.
2. Go to Start then Control Panel then double click on User Accounts.
3. In the left hand pane, select Create a password reset disk.
4. A new wizard will pop open - click Next.
5. Select the drive where you want to save your password to from the drop-down menu then click Next.
6. Type in your user account’s password, the account that you want backing up then hit Next.

   The wizard will make the encrypted password file and save it onto the disk you selected. Select Finish to end the wizard.

To restore your password from a reset disk:

1. Try and login using whatever password you can remember - after a few tries, the Reset password message will appear.
2. The wizard will open - click Next.
3. Choose from the drop-down menu which drive your encrypted password file is on, then select Next.
4. The password change will be accepted and you will login successfully.

On your desktop, if you notice a blurring behind some of the icons, this can easily be removed. Although it gives the icons a bit of extra depth in true-Vista-style, it can be quite off putting and some people can’t quite read the text properly, especially when a background is set.

Without the drop shadow……and with the drop shadow.

1. Go to Start then Control Panel.
2. Double click on the System icon in Classic view.
3. In the System Properties window, select the Advanced tab.
4. Under Performance, click the Settings button.
5. In the long list of checkboxes, untick the Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop.
6. Apply and OK all the windows you’ve got open - instant results!

DiscountClick is an online marketing service provider, enabling you to get so much more out of your website. From website promotion, Internet marketing, advertisements, and search engine optimisation such as MSN/Windows Live, Ask, AOL, Yahoo and Google. Search engine promotion costs as little as $50 per month, which can easily be covered from the costs of advertisements anyway. They expect results from your website promotion to be visible within 2-4 weeks, which by anyone’s guess is really quite a short amount of time. Expect your website and business to flourish with DiscountClick, honest, affordable online marketing services.

Consider this scenario. You have customized your “Documents” folder the way you like it with icon sizes and grouping settings. However, after you have applied these customizations and you re-open the “Documents” folder, you may see that the customizations are improperly applied, have been lost, or the folder has defaulted to a different view (for instance, the Pictures view, where all files are now displayed as large icons and thumbnails). Also, if you open the root directory of a hard drive, you may notice that columns such as “Date Taken” and “Rating” are displayed for example, when they should not be displayed. You have tried navigating to the Control Panel and opening Folder Options and clicking “Reset Folders”, however this does not resolve the issue.

Another scenario to consider: You have selected the “Extra Large Icons” option for a folder full of pictures. However, when you browse to that folder at a later date, you may notice that the pictures are now displayed in “Detail” view, and you must manually change the folder view to your desired settings.

1. Click on Start, and in the Start Search field type regedit, and then press Enter.
2. If User Account Control prompts you, provide consent by clicking on Continue or entering a password.
3. In the left hand pane, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
4. Right click on the “Bags” sub-key and click on Delete. When asked to confirm the operation click on Yes.
5. Close the Registry Editor.
6. Logoff then log back in again to see the changes made.

Thanks to Kristan Kenney.

By default, Windows Explorer in Windows Vista will try to automatically detect the contents of a folder and display the correct detail settings, however in some situations you may wish to disable this behavior and customize the view settings manually as desired.

 This involves editing the registry. It is always recommended to create a back-up of the registry before making any modifications. Before performing any of the actions below, please save your work and close any Windows Explorer windows, as you will need to log off for these changes to properly take effect.

Automatic method
Download the command script that I have created and extract the files to your desktop. Once you have extracted the files, simply double click on “disable_automatic_foldertype_discovery.cmd” and read the precautions in the command prompt window that appears.

This file has been scanned for viruses and does not perform any malicious tasks, it simply automates the task required to reset the Windows Explorer view settings and then proceed to disable the automatic folder content discovery.

Manual method

Manual method

1. Click on Start, and in the Start Search field type “REGEDIT”, and then press Enter.
2. If User Account Control prompts you, provide consent by clicking on Continue or entering a password.
3. In the left hand pane, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
4. Right click on the “Bags” sub-key and click on Delete. When asked to confirm the operation click on Yes.
5. Right click on the “Shell” sub-key and from the menu that appears click on New, and then click on Key.
6. Give the new key a name of “Bags” (without the quotes).
7. Right click on the “Bags” sub-key and from the menu that appears click on New, and then click on Key.
8. Give the new key a name of “AllFolders” (without the quotes).
9. Right click on the “AllFolders” sub-key and from the menu that appears click on New, and then click on Key.
10. Give the new key a name of “Shell” (without the quotes).
11. Select the “Shell” key that you just creaited.
12. In the right hand pane of the Registry Editor, right click on an empty area and from the menu click on New, and then click on String Value.
13. Give the new REG_SZ (String Value) a name of “FolderType” (without the quotes).
14. Double click on the FolderType String Value and give it a value of “NotSpecified” (without the quotes).
15. Close the Registry Editor.
16. Click on Start, press the arrow next to the power buttons, and select Log Off from the menu that appears.
17. Log back in and customize your Windows Explorer folder view settings as desired.

If you would like to reset Windows Explorer back to the way it should act by default:

1. Click on the Start button, and in the Start Search field paste the following bold text command: REG DELETE “HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders” /f
2. Press the Enter key to execute the command.

Folder content auto discovery will be enabled on any folders that have not been previously opened. However, if you would like to reset the view settings on all folders so that auto-sensing is automatically enabled, simply download the “Reset Windows Explorer View Settings” command script, extract the .cmd file from the Compressed Folder (ZIP file) and execute the command script, paying attention to the on-screen information.

Thanks to Kristan Kenney.

So I’ve been checking out a few links out there on the world wide web and there’s this one site which basically provides students and anyone with coupons and discounts on almost everything. CouponChief is really brilliant - I’ve found money off electronics, food and wine, wireless Internet and computery things, music, even office stationary like pens and paper which is really useful for college. CouponChief has offers absolutely everywhere and it is certainly worth a good look. With their search facility, you can easily find something and it really has everything you’d need. Students - this website could be your lifeline, CouponChief so check it out.