Computerzworld

Have you ever wished you could simply install some programs to your USB device and then, literally, take and use them anywhere? If so, check out PortableApps.

This aptly named software package does exactly as you would assume:

A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

PortableApps features many popular titles, such as:

* OpenOffice
* 7-Zip
* Notepad++
* Firefox

Of course, since all the software packages are free, so is PortableApps.

Even though if you have set ‘about:blank’ as your Home Page in Internet Options, IE7 keeps putting ‘http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=74005′ into the address line. You can change this option by changing registry. For that just download and run this registry file . And restart your IE7. Your default page will be set to blank page.

If have a blog and do not like using it’s online editor or are tired of dealing with the problems of copying and pasting from Word, then give Windows Live Writer a look.
Live Writer is a free tool which allows you to compose your blog entries, while offline, and then easily upload your entries to your online blog. As you would expect, the typical features, plus a few nice other ones, are available for editing and proofing blog entries, just encapsulated into a desktop application instead of only being available online.
While Live Writer is slanted towards getting you to run your blog on Windows Live, the application is able to upload to other popular services, such as WordPress, Blogger and LiveJournal.

Theoretically, you can get rid of it (as well as a few other things). Windows 2000 power users should already be familiar with this tweak.

Fire up the Windows Explorer and navigate your way to the %SYSTEMROOT% \ INF folder. What the heck is that thingy with the percentage signs? It’s a variable. For most people, %SYSTEMROOT% is C:\Windows. For others, it may be E:\WinXP. Get it? Okay, on with the hack! In the INF folder, open sysoc.inf (but not before making a BACKUP copy first). Before your eyes glaze over, look for the line containing “msmsgs” in it. Near the end of that particular line, you’ll notice that the word “hide” is not so hidden. Go ahead and delete “hide” (so that the flanking commas are left sitting next to one another). Save the file and close it. Now, open the Add and Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. Click the Add / Remove Windows Components icon. You should see “Windows Messenger” in that list. Remove the checkmark from its box, and you should be set. NOTE: there are other hidden system components in that sysoc.inf file, too. Remove “hide” and the subsequent programs at your own risk.

Here’s an important tip… If you are using a password protected user account in Windows XP might be nervous about forgetting your password. Well here’s a way to put your mind at ease, at least a little bit. Windows XP allows users to create a password reset disk specific to their user account. This disk can be used at the welcome screen to reset your password in the event that you do forget it.

To create the disk: Go to start\control panel\user accounts. Select the account you are currently logged in as.

Under the ‘related tasks’ heading in the top left corner, click ‘prevent a forgotten password’ to open the forgotten password wizard. Insert a blank floppy disk and follow the instructions to create your password reset disk.

To use the password reset disk in case of emergency:

Once you have created a password reset disk for a specific user, the next time the password for that user is entered incorrectly at the welcome screen, a message will pop up asking if you have forgotten your password. At this point you can elect to use your password reset disk. Follow the instructions to reset your password.

Note: There are a couple of possible problems with the above procedure. For one, if you have used Windows XP’s built in encryption feature to encrypt some of your files and folders, but have not yet updated to service pack 1, do not reset your password, as you will lose access to all the encrypted data. Once you have got service pack 1, it is safe to use the disk. Also, you cannot gain access to the reset feature if you have disabled the welcome screen on XP by using tip #31 above.

Keep your reset disk in a safe location, because anyone else can also use it to reset your password….