New Beta of Brightness Display

Download Beta

Hopefully this will improve reliability. Let me know in comments.

Easily Open the Containing Folder of Any File in a New Window

Another SendTo enhancement. Download and extract the .exe file your SendTo folder. The source .ahk file and icon are included, in case you want to edit the script and recompile it.


Download

Create a Sendto Item to Securely Delete Files

This handy little application is a complied AutoHotkey script that uses SDelete from SysInternals. The cute icon is by RainDropMemory.

Select file(s) and/or folder(s), right-click, and select Send To → Secure Delete

To install: Simply decompress the zip archive's contents to any folder and drop a shortcut to Secure Delete.exe in your SendTo folder (go to Start Menu → Run... → shell:sendto). Right-click the shortcut, click Advanced, and check Run as Administrator. Source ahk file is included.

Download

Display Brightness Level in Taskbar

I wanted a little notification for the current display brightness level. I couldn't find one, but the creator of the Display Brightness Vista Gadget made a console version of his app. I'm not much of a programmer, but I was able to use AutoHotkey to make the current display brightness level appear in the notification area of the taskbar. I'm providing it for download here free. You can't change the brightness level with this utility as you can the gadget... maybe that will be in a revision someday; it only displays the current level in the icon and as a tooltip. Just unzip to any location and run Brightness.exe. The icon in the notification area will change with the current display brightness. It should work on Windows Vista or Windows 7, 32/64-bit. If you have any issue, let me know in the comments. Thanks.

Download

Toolbars for Powerpoint 2007 Macros Are Unnecessary

Microsoft Office Powerpoint does not have persistent macros like in Word, so creating an add-in is required. However, you can create all macros in a PPTM (Macro-Enabled Powerpoint Presentation), and have an add-in (PPAM) where the AutoOpen () section merely opens the macro-containing file without a visible window. The macros can then be added to the Quick Access Toolbar in Powerpoint 2007.

Example:
Create a new Powerpoint Presentation and in VBA editor, add a module with the code below. Sign it with your personal digital signature and save it to a PPTM file and then save as a PPAM file.

Sub Auto_Open()

Application.Presentations.Open _
FileName:="pathtopowerpointfilewithdesiredmacros.pptm", ReadOnly:=msoFalse, Untitled:=msoFalse, WithWindow:=msoFalse

End Sub

in reference to: http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00031.htm (view on Google Sidewiki)

Missing Thumbnails for Microsoft Office Files?

Missing thumbnails for certain files in Windows Explorer (Vista, Win7) can be puzzling. If you have this difficulty with some Microsoft Office files, it just may be that the thumbnail was not saved with the file. In Microsoft Word 2007, this should be easy: the Save Thumbnail option should appear in the Save As dialog. In Microsoft Powerpoint 2007, things are more cumbersome: go to the Office Orb - Prepare - Properties, and then click on Document Properties in the main window to select Advanced Properties from the drop-down menu. In the Summary tab of Advanced Properties, check the box for Save Preview Picture. Not exactly straightforward, is it? To make it easier the next time, you can add Advanced Document Properties to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Another Way to Uninstall Intellipoint

I got some kind of error that Intellipoint needed to be reinstalled. Prior to that, I noticed that point64k.sys was coming up as "unsigned" when checking with sigverif. I'm not sure, but it might have to do with a November 2009 update to "Microsoft Hardware wireless mouse driver" or the mysterious "HID Non-User Input Data Filter (KB 911895)", which I can't find any info about. One last (but not least) culprit is the Thinkpad Ultranav pointing device that can have conflicts with Intellipoint & Microsoft mice. At any rate, it looked like the proper thing to do was reinstall Intellipoint and then do an overwrite install of the Ultranav driver and its "Utility".

Intellipoint has to be uninstalled before it can be reinstalled; the installer will refuse to continue if it detects that Intellipoint is already installed. I hope Microsoft changes this someday, because it makes fixing issues of corrupted installed much more difficult... especially when, as in my case, it did not show up in the Program and Features dialog box (previously known as Add/Remove Programs).

Read more »

Open Registry Locations from the Clipboard

On several Windows tips sites (like this modest blog), there are Registry keys listed. A fast way to navigate to them is by using RegJump from Sysinternals or Nirsoft RegScanner (the latter is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions). Combined with a little AutoHotkey scripting, it's an easy way to open registry locations from web pages:

; AutoHotkey script fragment follows

Read more »

Use iTunes to Sync to a Non-Default Data File in Outlook

Although you can use iTunes to sync an iPhone or iPod Touch to Microsoft Office Outlook on Windows, there are no settings in iTunes itself to allow syncing to a data file (PST) other than the default. This is annoying to those who have, say, a Microsoft Exchange account for work that must remain "default" in Outlook, but would like to sync contacts and/or notes that are personal.

Read more »

Keep Outlook from Stealing Focus

Outlook steals focus and brings itself to the front multiple times when starting up. It's highly annoying, but it can be stopped. The villain is the /recycle switch that is added to the default shortcut for Microsoft Office Outlook in the Quick Launch toolbar. Removing the switch will make Outlook more behaved when it's starting.

Read more »

Internet Time Sync - Reset to Fix Error on Vista

Internet Time sync using NTP servers causes frustration for a lot of Windows users. The following instructions will reset the NTP run-time and adjust the NTP server setting. Make sure you haven't set conflicting settings in Group Policy.

1. The default server, time.windows.com, is just not as reliable as some other NTP servers publicly available. However, the best practice now is to sync to a NTP pool and/or your local university's or ISP's NTP servers. Get the list of servers for your location at the NTP Pool Directory. Example: 0.us.pool.ntp.org 1.us.pool.ntp.org 2.us.pool.ntp.org 3.us.pool.ntp.org


2. Run the following commands from an Administrator command prompt:

Read more »

Make Yahoo! Day Planner Widget Work with Google Calendar

[Updated Aug 3]

The Day Planner widget that comes with the Yahoo! Widget Engine (a.k.a. Konfabulator) can work with iCalendar (ICAL) files, but this feature has been hidden in the Windows platform since Mozilla Sunbird stopped using iCalendar files (.ics) for storing calendar data.

Read more »

An Easy Way to Improve Security in IE

The Hazards of MIME Sniffing

Bottom line:

As a user you can go into security settings for the Internet Zone and switch off the “Open files based on content, not extension” option.

Outlook Junk Email Filtering with Non-Cached Exchange Account

Junk Email filtering in Outlook only works when there is a default PST or OST data file, and then it works only on email delivered to the Inbox. Therefore, if you have a server rule that moves mail to other folders, spam will not be filtered. Instead, have rules that move messages be client-based by including the condition, "On this machine only". That way, Outlook's Junk Email filtering will be active before rules to move messages from the default Inbox take effect.

In addition (or alternatively), you can enable server-based Junk Email filtering within Options of Outlook Web Access.

Replacement New Email Icon Notification for Outlook

The little icon that you can have show up in the notification area of the taskbar (a.k.a. the tray) when you receive new email in Outlook is not always so convenient. If you receive mail into a folder that's different than the default Inbox, it doesn't work so well.

Using AutoHotkey, I made a little EXE application that pops a pretty envelope icon and plays the New Email sound specified in the Sounds control panel (provided it is in the default %SYSTEMROOT%\Media folder). It even has a neat-o tooltip with the time mail was received.

To use: Put OutlookNoti.exe anywhere and make or revise a rule in Outlook that involves starting the application when mail arrives. That's it!

It's freeware. Enjoy!

Download
Source

System Requirements:
It should work with most versions of Microsoft Outlook and Windows, but post a comment below if there's an issue.

Removing "Near Me" Group from AIM Buddy List

"Near Me" is a so-called smart group, and it cannot be removed like other groups (apparently). You can delete the group from this page: http://buddyinfo.aim.com/sg/

Thanks to openaimsupport

Tabless Web Browsing

Having tabs in web browsers can be very convenient, but they can be annoying also. That point totally mystifies some people.

There are 2 reasons why I wanted to get a tabless web browser. First is that I have a widescreen notebook computer. The vertical space is more precious to me than the horizontal space. Unless you're using an extension like Tab Kit in Firefox, you are stuck with tabs between the top of your screen and the start of web page content.

Second, I sometimes use the web while referring to windows of other programs (incredible, yes?). I can have a lot of windows, browser or otherwise, open at once. Accordingly, I have a vertically oriented taskbar on the left side of the screen. I can stretch out the taskbar quite wide, and all buttons for open windows stack nicely on top of each other. If I open many windows, I get a second column of buttons that is still quite readable. Also, I have Aero previews so I can see what's what very easily. With Taskbar Shuffle, I can rearrange and middle-click to close taskbar buttons.

For tabless web browsing, I could find only 2 3 options: Internet Explorer (not IE-based browsers like Maxthon, Avant, or TheWorld), Safari, and Firefox. (Actually, you can't disable tabs in Safari, but you can Ctrl-click to open in a new background window.) With Safari, I couldn't get downloads to save correctly, so I wanted to see if I could work with IE. With Internet Explorer, you can disable tabs, but it does not look like you can open new windows in the background by default; they insist on stealing focus. In Firefox, set appropriate options for opening in windows instead of tabs and set browser.tabs.opentabsfor.middleclick to false, but new windows insist on stealing focus. The following in my main AutoHotkey script helped with that [UPDATED 6/4/2009]:

GroupAdd, browser, ahk_class IEFrame
GroupAdd, browser, ahk_class MozillaUIWindowClass



#IfWinActive, ahk_group browser

#MaxThreadsPerHotkey 8
; ^LButton:: SetWinDelay, 333 ; Uncomment if there are windowing problems in IE.

WinGet, parent, ID, A
Send {Click M}
WinWaitNotActive, ahk_id %parent%, , 10
If Errorlevel Return
WinGet, child, ID, A
WinActivate, ahk_id %parent%
WinWaitActive, ahk_id %parent%
WinGet, mx, MinMax, ahk_id %child%
If mx = 0 WinMaximize, ahk_id %child%
Return
#MaxThreadsPerHotkey 1
#IfWinActive

I think this way of using web browsers is pretty efficient, but having to use AHK to make it possible is sad. I mentioned some IE-based browsers, and they do have many features, but disabling tabs appears to just not be an option. Please, if you make a web browser, make it possible to easily open links in new background windows.

Reset Networking to (Possibly) Speed Up WiFi + Ethernet!

I noticed reconnecting to a wireless network after waking my Vista laptop from sleep was delayed. Also, running Internet speed tests showed slower rates, both over WiFi and even connected via Ethernet cable. I had been adjusting cabling and my router, so I had thought the problem was in that.

In the end, resetting networking components in Windows fixed all the problems. I gained 3000 Kbps in speed to match the cable Internet service I pay for. If you are having similar problems, try running the following Netsh commands from an elevated command prompt and then restart your PC:

1. netsh winsock reset
2. netsh int ipv4 reset
3. netsh int reset all
   

How to Determine Channels of Nearby Wireless Networks

Run the following from a command prompt:
netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid

Editor for AHK Scripts

Because I love AutoHotkey, I want to tell everybody about this great, free editor: SciTE4AutoHotkey

Quick tip: to reload what you're working on upon save, add this to your script:

Read more »