Google Users Edit Documents Offline

The first application to get this offline access will be the word processor, said Ken Norton, Google Docs product manager. "The design goal is to create a seamless experience, with or without an Internet connection," he said.

Over the next three weeks or so, Google will turn on the feature for all word processor users, giving them the ability to view and edit documents while offline. During the same time period, Google Docs' spreadsheet will gain offline ability for viewing, but not editing, documents.

Google Docs' third component, an application to make slide presentations, will remain without offline access for now. However, Google has plans to extend the offline access to it and to other hosted services in the Google Apps suite, of which Docs is part. Apps also includes Gmail, Calendar, Talk and others.

"Offline access of [hosted] apps is the next step in making the Web as a whole a lot more reliable," Norton said.

Gearing up

Expectation for offline access in Docs and Apps had been building since Google introduced its Gears open-source technology last May. Until now, Google had only built Gears offline functionality for its Reader RSS feed manager.

By allowing Docs and Apps users to work offline, Google is addressing one of the biggest objections to Web-hosted applications. So far, offline access has required that users export their Docs files to third-party file formats, like Microsoft Office.

Gears is a browser plug-in that can store files and data locally, as well as run JavaScript applications without a server connection. It's this architecture that will allow Docs users to work on their word processing documents if their Internet connections drop or if they're somewhere without one, such as on an airplane.

To access their Docs files offline, users need only install the Gears Plug in and type in the regular Google Docs URL: docs.google.com.

Work done offline will be automatically synchronized with the Google Docs servers when users connect to the Internet.

As an open-source technology, Gears can be used by developers outside of Google.

The offline access will be turned on "in batches" over the coming weeks in consumer Docs accounts and in the administrator consoles of Apps.

Gears is currently supported in Internet Explorer Version 6 and higher and in Firefox 1.5 and above for Windows XP and Vista, according to Google . Firefox 1.5 and above is also supported on Mac OS X 10.2 and higher and on Linux. Gears also runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 and above in Internet Explorer 4.01 and above.

5 Things iPhone 2.0 Must Have

I realize we've had our differences over the years. I warned you about shipping iPods with nonreplaceable batteries, we bickered over releasing Leopard with so many bugs, and I've never been a fan of the black turtleneck. (Here's a tip: Head & Shoulders--use it.)

Now I'd like to talk to you about the iPhone. Yes, I know, you just released the software development kit unto the world, and the praise is flowing like champagne in the back of a stretch limo. But some things software can't fix. And your developer fanboys might be able to address certain other flaws, but those tweaks should really be part of the OS.

Here are five things you need to improve in iPhone 2.0, whenever you get around to releasing it. (In my humble opinion, of course.)

1. Enlarge the Friggin' Keyboard

Yeah, the touch screen is cool. And maybe the kids are down with doing the two-finger tango. But we thumb-typists are tapping our fingers in frustration.

This doesn't strike me as a big deal to fix. Maybe one of your SDK minions will jump on it. In the meantime, may I recommend a slide-out keyboard option? The one that HTC built for the AT&T Tilt is pretty nifty (though the keyboard and the "tilting" screen are the only things that are neat about it). Even an add-on Bluetooth keyboard might work.

Think about it.

2. Give Me Faster Net Access

Since AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that you'd be shipping a 3G iPhone this year, I've been dying to know when. So spill. I don't need the exact day--the month, even the quarter, would be nice.

We all know that iPhones use AT&T's notoriously finicky EDGE network, which averaged download speeds of around 110 kbps in tests by Broadband Reports, or a fraction of the 400 to 700 kbps that most folks get with, say, Sprint's EvDO network. Yes, 3G radios suck down battery power the way Lindsay Lohan sucks down margaritas. Given Apple's spotty record with the iPod's batteries, I understand your concern. But the Samsung BlackJack and the LG Voyager do 3G, and you don't hear a lot of people whining about their battery life.

It's also true that using the iPhone's built in Wi-Fi is even faster than using 3G. But when I'm inside a Wi-Fi cloud, I'm usually surfing the Net on my laptop. I need fast Internet access when I'm not at home, at work, or in a hotel room. Build us a free nationwide Wi-Fi network, Steve, and I'll be happy to use it.

For now, your phones need a new radio and a bigger battery to support it--something your SDK fanboys can't handle. I'm betting that iPhone 1.0 owners won't be pleased to find out they'll have to buy a whole new phone to get 3G. Some of them might even write you strongly worded letters.

3. Locate a GPS Chip

It's the next must-have feature for cell phones, even if it is a little creepy. But the fact that the iPhone has a groovy Maps app--but no GPS chip inside--is almost weird.

Yes, the iPhone can now triangulate the user's position through Wi-Fi and cell towers, thanks to a firmware upgrade last January. And if all folks care about is being within a half mile of the actual destination, that's fine. But if people want to track their buddies using services such as Loopt, they have to buy a GPS phone from Sprint/Nextel--and that's just wrong.

GPS can open up a whole new world of surveillance options for interested parties, and we know you believe the black helicopters are already following you at night. But those choppers belong to Steve Ballmer, and he's really just looking for Larry Page's house.

The rumor mill says GPS will be part of the longed-for-but-still-theoretical 3G iPhone. Let's hope so.

4. Richer Multimedia Tools, Please

You put the "pod" in podcasting, and for that everyone is grateful. So where are the tools that let me create podcasts on the fly, such as voice and video recorders?

While I'm at it, why can I take pictures with the iPhone's 2-megapixel camera but not e-mail or text-message them? When I'm out partying with my BFFs, I can't take snaps and share them with all my other BFFs. You're totally killing my creative buzz, dude.

And what about support for Web video? I know you've dissed Adobe Flash, but what are you offering as an alternative? Even Windows Mobile phones support Flash and Silverlight. When those dorks are beating you to rich media, that's just embarrassing. You need to do something about that, stat.

5. Open the Sucker Up

Steve, Steve, Steve. I figure you're tired of hearing this, but if you don't want hackers to keep jailbreaking the darned thing, you gotta open it up.

I've heard all about the sweetheart deal you cut with AT&T, how you took their candy away and made them cry, forcing them to give you $10 per subscriber every month in exchange for five years of exclusivity.

I don't care. AT&T's voice coverage is spotty at best, and it has a reputation for customer service rivaled only by the Russian Mafia.

You came to be the Almighty Jobs by listening to your users, and for that you deserve props. So listen to this: At least one out of every five iPhones has been unlocked or is otherwise unaccounted for. Your users are sending you a pretty loud message--can you hear them now?

That's not all I'd like to see fixed, of course. It would also be nice to copy text from one appplication and paste it in another, delete more than one e-mail message at a time, forward voice mail and text messages, sync the device without a cable, set default alarms inside the calendar, and view iCal appointments in full living color. But we'll leave those things to your budding army of software developers.

One more thing: If I have to hear "one more thing" at another of your product soirees, I'm gonna hurl. You need a new catchphrase, something short and snappy like "Fo shizzle, ma nizzle" or simply "D'oh!"

How to Speed Up Windows Vista

SP1 may not give your system much more oomph, but there are other ways to speed Vista up. Spending a few minutes (or a few dollars) optimizing your Vista PC can help it get its groove on.

Get flashy: If you have an extra USB flash drive that you don't use for much else, Vista can cache disk reads on it, thereby boosting performance beyond what you'd get from your hard disk alone. Simply insert your flash drive into a USB 2.0 slot. If the drive is fast enough, a prompt will appear, asking whether you want to open the folder for the drive or use it to 'Speed up my system using Windows ReadyBoost' (see the screen shot at left). Choose the latter option, and follow the remaining prompts. When you're calculating how much space to set aside for ReadyBoost to use, Microsoft recommends that you let ReadyBoost use one to three times the amount of RAM on your system.

Play your cards right: USB thumb drives aren't the only way to boost system performance--fortunately, since USB memory sticks protruding from a computer (particularly a laptop) are easy to dislodge, and they can be a pain to remove and stow for traveling. If your PC has a reader for SD (Secure Digital) or CompactFlash cards, you can use those media in place of a USB stick to handle your ReadyBoost needs.

Seize control: Speeding up Vista isn't enough; you need to prevent the OS from slowing you down. The annoying Vista pop-ups that ask you to 'Allow' or 'Deny' many actions are examples of Vista's User Account Control at work. The process makes you safer, but your productivity may suffer if you must constantly respond to UAC's demands. For ways to reduce the intrusiveness of this feature, see "Annoyance Buster: Make Vista's User Account Control Work for You."

See if your hardware is slowing you down: In Explorer, right-click Computer and choose Properties. Next to 'Rating', click Windows Experience Index. The item with the lowest score is the biggest drain on your getting a better Vista experience. For example, if the lowest score is attributed to Graphics, it may be time to invest in a new graphics card.

Sideline sidebar: If you don't need the little "gadget" doo-dads in the Vista sidebar, get rid of them. Right-click the Windows Sidebar icon in the taskbar tray and choose Exit. Open the Control Panel and launch Windows Sidebar Properties in the 'Appearance and Personalization' category. Uncheck Start sidebar when Windows starts and click OK (see the screen shot at left).

What would Windows do? If you have an older or less capable video card, click Start, type systempropertiesperformance, and press Enter. Click Continue if prompted by User Account Control. Select Adjust for best performance. Or cherry-pick the options you can't live without

More Ways to Accelerate Vista

Dis-Service yourself: Don't let unneeded software components waste memory or put a ball-and-chain on your Windows startup. Click Start, type msconfig, and press Enter. Confirm if prompted by User Account Control. But be careful! Click the Services tab, and uncheck only the services you're certain you don't need. To be safe, uncheck one, reboot, and see if everything still works fine before moving on to another. Do your homework via Online help or a Web search before experimenting!

Here are some services that you might be able to do without: If you don't work interactively with a remote computer, don't run programs from a server, and don't need Remote Desktop, uncheck Terminal Services. If you can live without Windows diagnostic and troubleshooting services, uncheck Diagnostic Policy Service, Diagnostic Service Host, and Diagnostic System Host. If you don't want Windows to index your files for searching, uncheck Windows Search. Other Services options to consider disabling include 'Fax', 'Offline Files', 'Smart Card', 'Smart Card Removal Policy', 'Themes', and 'Windows Error Reporting Service'.

Keep your disk in shape: The same advice you've heard for years is true for Vista, too: Delete the useless clutter on your hard disk and defragment it. To do the former, click Start, type Cleanup, and press Enter. Specify the drive and files to clean and click OK. You may need to repeat the steps for multiple drives. To defrag your drives, click Start, type Defragmenter, and press Enter. Use this dialog box to set up a time to defrag your disk regularly at a time when you are away from your system. Vista has an automatic defragmenting feature that may kick in at inopportune times; scheduling your defrags will help ensure that these operations don't occur while you're working.

Be a power pig: If you don't mind spending more, you can boost your system's performance by adjusting its power options. In the Control Panel, launch Power Options in the 'System and Maintenance' category. Select High Performance, close the dialog box (see the screen shot at left), and prepare yourself for a higher electric bill.

Keep on tweaking: For still more performance tweaks, check out my article, "Shift Any Version of Windows Into High Gear."

Want to squeeze even more out of Vista? We can help you out with 20 great downloads that make Vista work better, tips on how to stream video and music from your Vista PC to your HDTV and solutions to Vista's defrag mysteries. Meanwhile, Contributing Editor Steve Bass has assembled a treasure trove of Windows tips of his own. And in case reading isn't your thing, we have videos, too: Learn how to speed up Vista's boot-up time, improve Vista's performance, or install Vista from scratch. Or just watch a bunch of PC World editors complain about Vista.

Five things you'll love (or hate) about IE8

Wondering what you'll love (or hate) about IE8? I've put the beta through its paces, and I've got the goods for you. I've found some nifty new features, and one that spells annoyance. Read on for details and screenshots.

WebSlices

Think of this feature as RSS feeds on steroids. As with an RSS feed, you subscribe to changing content from a Web page. But WebSlices are graphically richer, and as you can see in the screenshot below, you can view them directly from the newly configured Favorites bar (previously called the Links bar), by clicking them. When you click one, the WebSlice drops down. You can click through to go to the Web page that houses the slice, or simply view it in the drop-down. This is a nifty feature, but only useful if Web developers place WebSlices on their pages. At the moment, there aren't many WebSlices out there. So it's hard to know whether developers will create them, and this will become a truly useful feature, or instead will join the long list of good ideas had a quick exit to the graveyard.

WebSlices, by the way, bear a striking resemblance to an ill-conceived feature Microsoft introduced way back in 1997 in IE4-- Active Desktop. For details, check out my blog IE8's new WebSlices feature: Welcome to 1997.

New Favorites bar

As I mentioned above, the Links bar has been renamed the Favorites bar, and been given a few new features. You can put WebSlices and RSS feeds here as well as links. Microsoft also says that you can include links to documents on your hard disk, but I haven't tried that out yet…or figured out yet how to do it. I'm not a big fan of the new Favorites bar; I always thought that the Links bar took away real estate and didn't offer many new features, and the new Favorites bar seems like more of the same.

Activities

This feature powers up the Internet Explorer right-click menu. Hover your mouse over an item, or highlight the item, and right-click and a list of actions appear, such as mapping the highlighted term, translating it, defining it, and so on. Depending on the choice you make, you may see a preview screen of your action right on the Web page, such as displaying a small map, as you see below. You can then click through to the larger map.

Crash recovery

Finally, Internet Explorer can do what Firefox has been able to do with add-ins for a very long time --- recover from crashes, and then restore the session or tab that crashed. So after IE8 crashes, or an individual tab crashes, you'll have the option of restoring it, as you can see below.

Easier-to-identify domains

Some URLs are so long and complex that it can be tough to immediately decipher which domain you're currently visiting. In IE8, in the address bar, only the domain (for example, computerworld.com) is black; everything else is in gray. That way, you can see immediately where you are. Check it out, below.

By the way, if you're testing out IE8 for yourself, you might want to check my previous blogs about IE8, one which detailed how IE8 hosed my system, and the other about how I fixed it. Also, I'll be posting a fuller review of IE8 on Computerworld soon, so check for that soon.

If you'd like to see a head-to-head review of IE8 versus Firefox 3, read Battle of the betas: Firefox 3 beats IE.

Five Ways to Put the Web in Your Pocket

I have a love-hate relationship with the Web. I love being able to stash all my stuff online--my e-mail, calendar, files, etc.--and access it wherever I happen to be. But I hate having to lug around a laptop and hunt down Wi-Fi connections.

My cell phone, on the other hand, has a browser and near-constant Net access. But the screen is too small for my aging eyes, and Web pages are too unwieldy to navigate using only my thumbs. Instead of making the screen bigger, I've figured out how to shrink the Web. Often I don't even need a smart phone (though I do need a phone with a WAP 2.0 browser). Here's how I bring the Web with me wherever I go.

Get thee to a mobile portal: All the major portals and news sites like those of the New York Times and CNN offer slimmed-down mobile versions without the graphical mess. In most cases you can just type "mobile" instead of "www" in your phone's browser; be sure to bookmark that version so you don't have to type the site's name more than once.

At press time Yahoo announced the beta of Yahoo Go 2.0, a portal with a nifty interface optimized for cell phones. But to run it you'll need a handset like the BlackBerry Pearl or the Nokia 6133. (My wimpy Samsung SGH-X497 wasn't powerful enough.)

"Mobilize" your favorite sites: Services like Skweezer.net can "skweeze" your favorite sites so you can see them on that teensy-weensy screen; via Skweezer you can also access your PC's address book, browser favorites, and POP3 e-mail from a phone. Or to use Google, enter any URL here and your pals at the search service will automatically remove mobile-unfriendly formatting so you can better access the site on your phone. Bitty.com's Mobileplay Network does the same for sites like Salon.com and (yes) PCWorld.com. These services work well on some sites but not other ones, so try before you fly.

Pack your blogs: Visit PhoneFeeds.com and enter the name of the blog or RSS feed you want to view on your phone. The site spits back a URL where you'll find a version of the blog customized for small screens. You can see PCW's Techlog blog, for example. And since PhoneFeeds numbers are sequential, you can add a lot of blogs to your phone quickly by just changing one or two characters in each URL. Some blogs turn out better than others, though, and hyperlinks within blogs tend to get stripped out.

Text, don't surf: Don't bother wading through Web pages when all you need is a discrete bit of information, like local restaurants, sports, weather, or flight times--use SMS (Short Message Service) instead. Send a text message to Google (46645) or Yahoo (92466) with the word "sushi" and your zip code, for example, and you will instantly receive the addresses and phone numbers of three raw-fish bars. (For more on Google texting, see Cell Phone Tips.) Yahoo's SMS goes a step further by letting you search for Wi-Fi hotspots, too.

Not all SMS services are quite so johnny-on-the-spot. 4Info (44636) offers information similar to that of Google and Yahoo SMS, plus things like jokes and pickup lines (don't ask). But getting answers took more than 10 minutes, and when I asked about Wi-Fi nets in Las Vegas, it served up a list of McDonald's restaurants. As if.

Stay synced: By the time you read this, companies like CoolMarks, Saki, and SharpCast will let you move photos, documents, contacts, and more from your cell phone to your PC, and vice versa. SharpCast Photo service, for example, allowed me to sync images across my phone, my computer, and the Web. Edit a photo on your PC, and the altered image shows up on your phone. The bad news? Many of these services work only with Windows Mobile phones (personally, I'd rather eat broken glass than use another Windows device).

Bottom line: Though I may not be able to ditch my laptop entirely, I'll be leaving it at home a lot more often.

12 Great Ways to Improve Your Windows Performance

Don't like the way Windows works? Who does?

But just because the operating system doesn't look and work the way you want doesn't mean that you're stuck with it as is. Windows is extremely tweakable; if you dig a little, you'll find that you can customize it in almost any way you want.

To help you out, we've put together this guide to tweaking Windows. It covers both XP and Vista and lets you do all kinds of things you might have thought were impossible -- replacing your boot screen, tweaking the Control Panel, speeding up Windows Flip 3D and more. Look for the XP logo and Vista logo icons to see which tips work in which OS.

The tweaks vary in the expertise you'll need. In some cases you'll get down and dirty with the Registry, so if you're not certain you know how to make a DWORD value, for example, read first. (Be sure to read the instructions for before you attempt any Registry edits whatsoever.) . In other cases, you'll just have to dig into hidden corners of menus and folders. But in all cases, you'll tell Windows exactly how you want it to behave ... and it will bow down to you, the master.

Editor's note: We're assuming that any system settings you change will be on your own computer. Always check with your IT department before altering a company-owned machine.

1. Speed up Windows Flip 3D

Windows Flip 3D, which gives you a pop-up preview of all your open windows, is one of Windows Vista's coolest new features -- but if your hardware isn't up to snuff, its operation can be jagged and sluggish.

With a Registry tweak, you can speed it up and smooth its animations by limiting the number of windows it will display.

1. Launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit at the Start Search box or a command prompt.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
3. Create a new DWORD value and name it Max3Dwindows.
4. Set the value to the maximum number of windows you want displayed. If you have severe performance problems, set it at 4; you can always re-edit and up the number later.
5. Exit the Registry Editor.

For the change to take effect, you'll need to either restart your PC or restart Vista's Desktop Windows Manager (DWM). To do the latter, launch an elevated command prompt (which means you're operating the command prompt with administrator rights) by typing cmd in the search box and pressing Ctrl-Shift-Enter. Type net stop uxsms and press Enter. Then type net startuxsms and press Enter. Windows Flip 3D will now be sped up.

With the new settings in effect, Windows Flip 3D will display only the number of windows you've told it to. If you have six windows open and your set maximum is four, only four will be displayed at a time. As you scroll through your windows, each new one will replace an old one.

2. Improve Explorer's Send To menu
When you right-click a file or folder in Windows Explorer, a menu that lets you take a variety of actions pops up. One of these is Send To, which allows you to send the file to any one of a list of locations -- for example, to a drive, a program or a folder.

But the programs and destinations that appear in the list by default may not be the ones you want to send things to. It's simple to add destinations or programs and to take away others. You'll merely add or take away shortcuts from a special Windows folder.

In Windows Vista, go to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo where username is your username.

In Windows XP, go to C:\Documents and Settings\username\SendTo where username is your username.

In both cases, the folder will be filled with shortcuts to all the locations you find on your Send To context menu.

To remove an item from the Send To menu, delete the shortcut from the folder. To add an item to the menu, add a shortcut to the folder by highlighting the folder, choosing File --> New --> Shortcut (on Vista, you'll need to press Alt to get the File menu to appear) and following the instructions for creating a shortcut.

The new setting will take effect immediately; you don't have to exit Windows Explorer for it to go into effect.

3. Open the command prompt from the right-click menu
For accomplishing certain tasks, such as the mass deleting or renaming of files, the command prompt is the ideal tool. Often, you'll combine its use with Windows Explorer, and so you may want to open the command prompt at the folder that's your current location in Explorer.

Wouldn't it be nice to add an option to the right-click context menu that would open a command prompt at your current folder? For example, if you were to right-click the C:\My Stuff folder, you could then open a command prompt at C:\My Stuff.

In Vista, it's easy to do. Hold down Shift when you right-click in a folder window, and a new option appears on the context menu: Open Command Window Here. Select it and there you are in an appropriately located command prompt.

In XP, that option doesn't appear, but you can add it with a Registry tweak.

1. Launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit at the Start Search box or a command prompt, then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Folder\shell
2. Create a new key called Command Prompt. For the default value, enter whatever text you want to appear when you right-click a folder -- for example, Open Command Prompt.
3. Create a new subkey beneath the Command Prompt key called Command. Set the default value to Cmd.exe /k pushd %L
4. Exit the Registry. The new menu option will show up immediately. Note that it won't appear when you right-click a file; it shows up only when you right-click a folder.

4. Resize desktop icons
Not happy with the size of the icons on the desktop or in Windows Explorer? It's a snap to change their size in Vista. Press the Ctrl key and scroll your mouse wheel (or trackpad equivalent) forward to enlarge the icons, or toward you to shrink them. You'll have many degrees of size to choose from, and they'll stay at the new size until you change them again.

If you don't have a wheel on your mouse or trackpad, there are still several ways you can change the size of the icons. For a quick way, but with few choices for icon sizes, right-click the desktop and select View. You can now choose small, medium or large icons.

If you want more choices, right-click the desktop and choose Personalization. Click Open classic appearance properties for more color options, click the Advanced button, choose Icon from the drop-down list, and use the Size control to change the size. Click OK, then keep clicking OK until all menus disappear.

In Windows XP, right-click the desktop and choose Properties. Click the Appearance tab, then the Advanced button. Choose Icon from the drop-down list, and use the Size control to change the size of the icons. Click OK, then keep clicking OK until all menus disappear.

5. Remove shortcut arrows from your icons
Do the large shortcut arrows on your desktop icons offend your aesthetic sensibility? Then remove them. Get rid of them in Windows Vista using the free Vista Overlay Remover (also called FxVisor). Run it, and you can choose to either make the shortcut arrow smaller and lighter or remove it altogether.

As you might suspect, Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover won't work with Windows XP, but XP users can use Microsoft's free TweakUI PowerToy to accomplish the same thing. Run it and choose Explorer --> Shortcut. Choose Light arrow if you want the arrows to be smaller and lighter, or None to remove them completely. You'll have to log off and then log on again for your changes to take effect.

6. Unclutter the XP Control Panel
Windows XP's Control Panel isn't exactly a model of simplicity -- it's cluttered with many applets that you rarely, if ever, use. You can tweak it, however, to hide many applets.

To hide unused applets in Windows XP, launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit at the Start Search box or a command prompt. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ControlPanel\don't load

(If the don't load key does not exist, create it by choosing Edit --> New --> Key and naming it don't load.) The key, as its name implies, determines which Control Panel applet icons will not be loaded into the Control Panel.

To hide an applet, create a new string value whose name is the file name of the applet you want to hide. For example, to hide the Mouse icon, the string value would be main.cpl. To create a string value, have your cursor on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\don't load then select Edit --> New --> String Value, and for the value, give it the file name of the applet you want to hide.

You'll still be able to run those applets from the command line (and they may also appear in other places, such as XP's Common Tasks list shown on the left side of the Control Panel window) after you hide them; you just won't be able to see their icons in the Control Panel.

Note, though, that you won't be able to hide every single Control Panel applet you find. Underlying the Control Panel is chaos; although many applets are .cpl files, some are links to folders, and others are controlled by .dll files. You'll be able to hide only the applets that are controlled by .cpl files.

Create a separate string value for each applet you want to hide, then exit the Registry. The applets will vanish from the Control Panel. To make a hidden applet appear again, delete its string value from this same Registry key.

7. Display Control Panel applets in a cascading menu
Maybe you'd like to bypass the Control Panel altogether. If so, you can force Windows to display Control Panel applets in a cascading menu when you choose Control Panel from the Start button.

To do this in Windows XP, right-click the taskbar and choose Properties --> Start Menu. Choose the Start menu radio button, click the Customize button next to it, and choose the Advanced tab. Under the Control Panel heading, choose Display as a menu. Click OK twice.

In Windows Vista, right-click the taskbar and choose Properties --> Start Menu. Then click the Customize button next to the Start menu item, scroll down to the Control Panel heading, and select Display as a menu. Click OK twice.

8. Animate Vista's network icon
Here's a quick way to see if you're sending or receiving data over your network or the Internet on a Vista PC: Animate the network icon that sits in the system tray. Right-click the icon and select Turn on activity animation. Whenever data is being sent or received, the icon will subtly light up. To turn off the animation, right-click the icon and select Turn off activity animation.

9. Change your Windows boot screen
Tired of seeing the same old Windows logo every time you start Windows? Dedicated tweakers can easily change the logo to whatever they want. There are two different processes for changing the boot screen in Vista and in XP.

Vista
First, you have to create or find a graphic for your new boot screen. You'll need two versions of the graphic, one 1024 by 768 pixels, and one 800 by 600 pixels. They have to be in .bmp format and must be 24-bit.

If you can't create them yourself, use Google image search. In your search results, under each image, you'll see the dimensions of the graphic, so you'll know whether it's the right size. If you add the word "wallpaper" to the subject of your search, you're more likely to find images of the right sizes.

Note that if you come across a graphic in .jpg format, you can still use it, because Internet Explorer can save it as a .bmp -- just right-click the image in IE, select Save Picture As, and in the Save As Type drop-down, select Bitmap (*.bmp) and click Save.

You can save time by finding just one file, a 1024-by-768-pixel image, and then using graphics software to resize it and make a copy of it as an 800-by-600-pixel file in addition to its original 1024-by-768 size. A great tool for doing this is the free IrfanView. (See a comment from one our readers below for a caveat on what "free" means to Irfanview.)

After you have both files ready, download, install and run the free Vista Boot Logo Generator. Click each of the Browse for Image buttons and select your two graphics.

Select File --> Save Boot Screen As, and save the file to any location on your hard disk. The program will not save the files as graphics but instead will save them both as a single file, winload.exe.mui.

Now that the file is saved, copy it to C:\Windows\System32\en-US. There will already be a file in that folder named winload.exe.mui, so make sure that you make a copy of the original before you replace it with this new one.

Now run the MSCONFIG utility by typing msconfig at the Search box or command prompt and pressing Enter. Click the Boot tab, select No GUI boot, and click OK. You'll be asked to restart Windows. Click Restart, and you'll see your new boot screen in living, full-color glory.

Note that depending on your configuration, Windows Vista may not allow you to overwrite the winload.exe.mui file. If that's the case, you'll need to do some extra work.

1. Run the command prompt as an administrator, by typing cmd at the Search box and pressing Ctrl-Shift-Enter.
2. Type the following command and press Enter: takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui. You'll get a message that you now have ownership of C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui.
3. Type this at the command prompt and press Enter: cacls C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui /G username:F where username is your username. You'll be asked whether you want to proceed.
4. Press the y key and then press Enter. You'll get this message: processed file: C:\Windows\System32\en-US\winload.exe.mui

You can now go ahead and copy winload.exe.mui to C:\Windows\System32\en-US, and then proceed with the rest of the tweak.

XP
With the help of a third-party app, Windows XP users can change their boot screens as well. Download, install and run the free program BootSkin. Scroll to any boot screen and click Preview to see a larger view of it. Once you've found one you want to use as your boot screen, click Apply.

The next time you boot, it will use your new boot screen. But you're not limited to just the boot screens in the program. Click Browse boot screen library, and you'll be brought to a page from the WinCustomize BootSkins Gallery that has literally thousands of boot skins. Choose one (or create your own), and you'll be set with a new boot screen.

10. Speed up Vista search
Windows Vista's search can bog down if you've got a lot of files, e-mails, contacts and more on your hard disk. But there's a simple way to make searching zippy again.

Most of the time when you do searches, you use the Search box on the Start menu, and those are most likely the times when you're looking for fast results. So I'll show you how to speed up searches launched from the Start menu.

First, decide what type of information you're usually looking for when you do a search from the Start menu's search box. Are you always looking to run a program? For a file? For an e-mail message?

After you decide that, right-click the Start button and choose Properties. Click Customize next to the Start menu entry, and the Customize Start Menu dialog box appears.

Uncheck the boxes next to any type of content you don't want to search. For example, if you only want to search for programs, uncheck the boxes next to Search communications and Search favoritesand history and select Don't search for files.

If you only want to search for files, uncheck the boxes next to Search programs, Search communications and Search favorites and history. Click OK when you're done, and OK again. Search will be sped up considerably.

11. Have Windows warn you when you hit Caps Lock
One of the more annoying computing experiences is accidentally hitting the Caps Lock key and typing all capital letters. There's a simple way that you can have Windows beep at you when you've accidentally hit it.

In Windows XP, select Control Panel --> Accessibility Options, and at the bottom of the screen, check the box next to Use ToggleKeys and click OK.

In Windows Vista, select Control Panel --> Ease of Access --> Change how your keyboard works. Then check the box next to Use ToggleKeys and click Save.

12. Use your own user account graphic
Don't want your user account picture to be a rubber ducky, a snowflake, a goldfish or a pair of horses? No problem -- you're not stuck with what Windows offers. You can use any picture you want, as long as the picture is in .gif, .jpg, .png or .bmp format.

In Windows Vista, choose Control Panel --> User Accounts and Family Safety --> Change your account picture. You'll see a screen presenting a few preset options. To bypass these, click Browse for more pictures, then navigate to the picture you want to use and click OK.

XP
From the Control Panel, choose User Accounts, then pick the account you want to change and choose Change my picture --> Browse for more pictures. Navigate to the picture you want to use and click OK.

For those interested in saving keystrokes, there's a quicker way to get to the screen that lets you customize your picture. Click your account picture in either Windows XP or Windows Vista, and a screen appears that lets you change your user account.

Facebook Adds Privacy Features

Facebook Inc. is tweaking the privacy settings on its popular online hangout to let users exert greater control over which of their friends are allowed to see personal details they post.

The Palo Alto-based company said it would add features Tuesday night that will give its 67 million active users the option of selecting individual users who can or can't access certain parts of their pages.

For example, someone who uploads a racy batch of photos or lists his cell phone number or personal e-mail address on his Facebook page can now bar some people on list of friends from seeing any of that information.

Previously, the only ways to block people from seeing specific content was to deny their friend requests outright or to create a limited profile. The second solution had the downside of blocking entire groups of people from a wide swath of content.

Facebook announced the new features Tuesday as it tries to combat criticism that it doesn't give users enough control over what posted information their friends see.

The company also is stepping up efforts to portray itself as privacy-conscious after many users rebelled over a marketing tool called ''Beacon'' that tracked purchases Facebook members made on other Web sites and sent alerts to their Facebook friends about the transactions.

Facebook now allows users to turn off Beacon. The new privacy features announced Tuesday don't extend to Beacon, however, so users who opt into that program still can't specify which friends receive Beacon alerts.

Facebook also demonstrated a new instant messaging function Tuesday that lets Facebook friends chat with one another and is scheduled to launch in coming weeks.

IRiver has recently launched a new E100 PMP

IRiver has recently launched a new PMP, the E100. This loaded player comes equipped with plenty of all round features that include memory expansion via microSD cards. It’s also a neatly designed player with dimensions like - 3.65" x 1.88" x 0.44" and weighs in at just about 2.09 ounces. Its 2.4 inch TFT QVGA display has a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels so video viewing won’t be a problem at all.

Other features, besides its music and video playing capabilities, include an FM radio with a Timer Recording feature, image viewer that supports JPG, BMP, PNG and GIF formats, a voice recorder and a .TXT viewer as well. For video it supports MPEG4 and WMV formats and audio - MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, FLAC ((Free Lossless Audio Codec). The E100 also incorporates SRS WOW HD sound field technology for a better audio experience. The device also uses an intuitive D*Click interface which makes things easier for navigation.

The E100 also has a line in socket for recording and supports USB data connectivity for file transfer. Like some of the other PMPs being launched lately, the E100 also has in-built speakers. It’s also out in 5 color variations viz. black, white, pink, sky blue and chocolate. The E100 is available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities and are priced at approximately Rs. 4,725 ($117), Rs. 5,936 ($147) and Rs. 8,683 ($215) respectively. However, there's no news on when it'll be launched in India. Stay tuned.

World's Most Expensive IPod for Sale

Charity auctions usually imply that there’s some really cool stuff on sale and that doesn’t really mean it’s all about the arts and crafts or boats and cars, gadgets also have their merit at these functions. It would seem like the world's most popular music player the iPod was also up for grabs at a recent London Charity Auction – the model – the Apple iPod Shuffle. If you’re thinking it was something that you’d see in any store you’d be dead wrong.

What was up on sale at the auction was what they’re calling the ‘worlds most expensive iPod’ which was essentially a diamond studded, 18 karat, white and pink gold iPod Shuffle. Reportedly it has a total of 430 diamonds and was created by Thomas Heyerdahl. It wasn’t just the Shuffle that was diamond encased, the earphones were as well. The device was estimated at about 20,000 pounds that's equivalent to about Rs. 1,639,673.55. Talk about RICH sound quality.

Intel To Launch Mobile Quad-Core Processors

Keeping in mind the advent of desktop based quad-core processors in the mainstream, it was just a matter of time before they showed up in a mobile version too. This was confirmed by Digitimes , which goes onto say that Intel will be planning to launch its first quad-core CPU for notebooks, the Core 2 Extreme QX9300, in the third quarter this year. This new processor will be manufactured at 45nm and have a core frequency of 2.53GHz. The CPU will support FSB speeds up to 1066MHz, include 12MB L2 cache and have a maximum TDP of 45W.

While this announcement is good in terms of consumer choice, it raises a number of interesting questions. Despite the low heat dissipation of these processors, they will be a lot more power hungry as compared to standard dual-core processors and this will directly affect battery life. Secondly with such powerful chips, the GPU market will also need to keep pace enabling more realistic gaming on laptops, which is abysmal to say the least at its very best.

Totally Touch Screen Mobiles

If you're a mobile maniac like me, you too would be bored by old-fashioned ways to input information into your mobile devices, such as using a (ugh) keypad. As I witnessed firsthand in our nation capital only a Samsung F490 – Launching in May (Approx. Rs 29,000)

The F490 doesn’t have a keypad; but then that’s why it’s included in part one of this feature. It relies on its 3.3 inch touchscreen display. It has a resolution of 240 x 420 pixels and 256K colors. Like the iPhone, it has a 3.5mm earphone socket and a decent video and audio player. There's a 5 megapixel camera with flash, and a secondary camera for video calling (since it supports 3G). It also has HSDPA, Bluetooth with A2DP, and USB support. In case you need more than the existing 100MB of internal space, it also supports microSD cards.

LG Viewty - Rs.21,000/-

The Viewty is essentially a camera phone, with its 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with strobe flash. There's a secondary camera for video calling since it supports 3G with HSDPA. Other connectivity features include Bluetooth with A2DP, USB v2.0, and EDGE. The handset also supports microSD cards for external memory, and like the other two handsets in this feature, it has no keypad. It has a 3 inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. The Viewty supports MP3, MPEG4, WMV, AAC, and DivX playback, and also has a voice recorder and integrated FM Radio. Handwriting recognition and photo-editing are also supported.

HTC Touch - Rs.16,200/-

The HTC touch is one of the slimmer and sleeker Windows Mobile devices. Though its functionality may need a bit of tweaking (and hopefully that’s been taken care of already since our review) the phone does have some upsides. It uses Touch Flow system for navigating a few menus and runs on Windows Mobile 6.0 that obviously allows this. Interestingly, it has a hot-swap slot for not only a microSD card but also for the SIM card. There's a 2 megapixel camera with a video and music player, and a voice recorder. Like other Windows Mobile devices, it has handwriting recognition. Connectivity-wise it’s well-equipped, with support for Wi-Fi, EDGE, Bluetooth and USB.

I’m sure there are a lot of people who’d like to know more about devices that don’t require the use of keypads. If you can think of any more devices, do start a thread in our Forums or leave a comment.

Lenovo Launches New Brand 'Idea'

Lenovo has launched "Idea" - a new consumer PC brand in India.
The range includes IdeaPad notebooks and IdeaCentre desktops that combine cutting-edge and easy-to-use technologies such as face recognition, Dolby Home Theater surround sound and dedicated gaming controls. Lenovo plans to roll out, its marketing campaign called "Ideas everywhere", to complement the product introduction in April 2008. "We're bringing Lenovo's expertise in design and engineering to consumers with our Idea-branded PCs. Lenovo designed its Idea-branded PCs for the way people live, work and play with cutting-edge features. We are confident we will grow our consumer business by blending innovative technologies like facial recognition with stylish designs to enhance the way people use technology in their personal lives," said Liu Jun, senior vice president and president, Consumer Business Group, Lenovo. "Lenovo has a significant focus on the consumer segment in India. The new IdeaPad and IdeaCentre products will deliver to our customers, an experience and products that are inspiring, dependable, exciting and aspirational," said Anil Philip, executive director, Transaction Business, Lenovo India. Each notebook offers a number of extra features that to maximize the experience that they were designed for.

Bypass Ban on Websites

YouTube has been pulled off in Pakistan, and how!

According to the BBC, Pakistan accidentally crashed YouTube's international servers on Sunday, so no one in the world could access it for over an hour.

For most Pakistanis though, logging on is still not an option.

However, for the more tech-savvy Pakistanis, bypassing the government ban may not be a problem.

Explaining the banning mechanism, delDSL VP, Lalit Chandra Mathur said, “There is a digital URL, a code that we put in our servers. The moment traffic come to it, it’s made to bounce away. It’s digitally locked.”

Firewalls – that check the websites’ names before allowing them into the country’s network – are usually set up by governments who seek to ban certain sites.

But the solution to that is simple. A banned website can be accessed through another website, which is not on the government's list.

Especially designed for this purpose, they are called "proxy servers" and tons of them like these will help Pakistan log on despite the ban.

The site earned the government’s wrath because of videos insulting Prophet Muhammed. But as those have been around for some time, one wonders if it’s actually the videos alleging rigged elections that earned the government's wrath.

Two years ago, a similar ban on BlogSpot had irked Pakistani bloggers no end.

This is not the first time YouTube has been banned by a country.

Brazil, Turkey, and Thailand are among a host of other countries that have yanked the website off at different times for different reasons.

Even India threatened to shut it down in January last year after a video poked fun at Mahatma Gandhi offended the government's sensibilities.

SAP announces new partners for SME offerings

SAP and Intel the world's biggest makers of business software and microchips, will jointly offer servers pre-packaged with SAP software aimed at medium-sized firms, the two companies said.

The package, which companies should be able to use straight out of the box, is SAP's first venture into hardware offerings pre-installed with its software and will be followed by other such partnerships, SAP said at the CeBIT technology fair on Tuesday.

"The offering targets midsize companies in the manufacturing, service and trade industries and directly addresses the demands in these market segments for quick and easy implementation, and tailored yet scalable solutions at predictable costs," SAP said in a statement.

The hardware for the prototype SAP is showing at CeBIT is provided by open-source software specialist Novell's Linux Enterprise.

SAP said the offering, which brings together its Business All-in-One software and modular servers based on Intel's Xeon processors, would help smaller companies reduce their total cost of ownership for IT systems.

Germany-based SAP is pushing to expand its strong customer base among large enterprises to include more smaller businesses and the drive is a crucial part of its plan to double its market value and raise profitability to a level comparable with rivals.

It is also readying for market another, hosted software offering aimed at smaller companies which it will offer over the Internet for a fixed regular subscription fee that will include remotely managing its customers' IT systems.

SAP said on Tuesday it had signed up 21 new IT service providers as partners for this hosted offering, Business ByDesign, bringing its total number of Business ByDesign partners to 43.

The new partners include are mainly small service providers in China, France, Germany and Britain -- some of the countries where SAP plans to first roll out the service.

SAP has said it aims to have about 1,000 customers using Business ByDesign by the end of the year.

Cisco unveils advanced edge router

Cisco Systems Inc ( on Monday unveiled a new router that helps phone companies and large businesses handle growing Internet traffic faster, and said it won a deal to supply Japanese phone provider NTT Corp's next-generation network.

The Cisco ASR (Aggregation Services Router) 1000 series is an upgrade to the network equipment maker's Cisco 7200, 7300, and 7500 edge routers already being used to direct Web traffic at the end of the network, often in contact with customers.

Cisco said it invested $250 million over more than five years to develop the ASR 1000, which will be available in April and costs $35,000 or more depending on configurations.

Microsoft to expand its Web services for businesses

Microsoft Corp, faced with Web rivals looking to poach its business customers, said on Sunday it plans to broaden the availability of its online services for e-mail and collaboration software.

Last year, Microsoft started subscription-based online services to run its Exchange corporate e-mail program and SharePoint collaboration software on Microsoft's own computer systems as an alternative to customers buying their own hardware to run licensed software.

Microsoft initially limited those services to companies with more than 5,000 workers, but the company said it will now offer the service to businesses of all sizes in the second half of 2008, after a testing period. The company did not disclose how much it will charge customers for the services.

It will also begin to offer a free download of a software called Search Server 2008 Express that allows companies to search files and documents inside their network. The product will rival Google Inc's Search Appliance.

Microsoft plans to unveil the news during a speech on Monday by Chairman Bill Gates at a conference for SharePoint, one of its fastest-growing applications, which allows workers to share documents and plan projects on secure Web sites.

Hosted Web services are gaining popularity among business customers, because companies do not need to spend a lot of money upfront to buy and maintain powerful computer servers.

Instead, companies can rent space on a computer server from a service provider for a monthly fee and avoid being locked into multiyear corporate agreements that are used by Microsoft for many of its core software offerings.

It also lets smaller companies get applications normally reserved for large organizations.

"This is a market that is really starting to pick up. I believe it is going to going to get very large," said Karen Hobert, an analyst at Burton Group.

Google, Salesforce.com Inc and a host of start-ups are aggressively targeting Microsoft's traditional business customers with Web applications that can be less expensive and easier to install on computers and run.

Last week, Google announced that it is offering a simple Web site publishing tool for office workers to set up and run their team collaboration sites.

Google Sites, as the new publishing service is known, is a stripped-down version of SharePoint that is free to users of Google Apps, a set of business applications that Google offers at a fraction of the cost of Microsoft's comparable products.

SOFTWARE PLUS SERVICES

Some companies such as Salesforce see Web services eventually replacing traditional packaged software, but Microsoft is pushing a "software plus services" strategy with the promise that this option combines the best of both worlds.

"Microsoft is starting to feel the pressures of the Googles of this world," Hobert said.

Microsoft's rivals have begun making inroads into the corporate market. Google says it has signed up more than 500,000 businesses over the past year to use Google Apps. One appeal is the ease with which office workers can get started and run their own team Web sites, without technical support.

But Microsoft said technology administrators in large organizations are concerned about losing control over access and usage of the software.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said the products will work the same as existing offerings, but the software will run on Microsoft's computer servers. Administrators, according to Microsoft, will maintain nearly the same level of control as if the software was on their own computers, but have fewer headaches managing related hardware, storage and software.

Microsoft has invested billions of dollars to build enormous data centers packed with thousands of powerful computer servers and storage systems to offer services to both regular consumers and customers in large organizations.

In order not to jeopardize corporate agreements that underpin many of its businesses, Microsoft said any company who wants to switch over to its services will be credited for the remaining portion of an existing contract, which can be applied toward monthly subscriptions.

Customers such as Autodesk Inc, Blockbuster Inc and Ingersoll-Rand have signed up for Microsoft's services, according to the company.

Intel picks "Atom" as name for new chip family

Intel Corp has picked "Atom" as the new brand name for its latest microprocessor, the world's largest semiconductor company said.

The Intel Atom processor is the name for the new family of low-power processors, the brains of digital devices, that will power mobile Internet devices and ultra low-cost and small notebook and desktop personal computers.

Intel sees a big market for the Internet-connected devices that can fit in one's pocket and for what it is calling the netbook, a low-cost PC costing around $250.

The Intel Atom processor is based on a new microarchitecture designed for small devices and low power consumption, Intel said. The chip is less than 25 square millimeters, and 11 of the chip's dies -- the slivers of silicon with 47 million transistors each -- would fit in an area the size of a U.S. penny.

The new chips, previously code-named Silverthorne and Diamondville, are made on Intel's 45 nanometer chipmaking technology and slated for introduction toward the middle of this year.

"Diamondville and Silverthorne both represent an attempt by Intel to sell chips profitably for a whole lot less," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at market research firm Insight 64. "This is the first new processor design coming out of Intel since the Pentium Pro in 1995."

Atom joins other Intel brands including Core, Core 2, Celeron, and Xeon, names for other processors the Santa Clara, California-based company makes and sells.

Intel also announced the Intel Centrino Atom processor technology brand aimed specifically at mobile Internet devices. It was formerly code-named Menlow.

Centrino Atom includes the Intel Atom processor, a low power companion chip with integrated graphics, a wireless radio, as well as thinner and lighter designs.

Sean Maloney, chief sales and marketing officer for Intel, said that Atom is "a fundamental new shift in design, small yet powerful enough to enable a big Internet experience on these new devices. We believe it will unleash new innovation across the industry."

Intel also said that Atom has potential for new sales dollars in consumer electronic devices and other gadgets, and said it was well positioned for growth in all of those segments with Atom's low-power architecture as a foundation.