QUICKER START FOR PROGRAMS: The registry value “0” for “MenuShow Delay” in the “HKEY_ CURRENT_USER\ ControlPanel\Desktop” registry key makes the Start menu faster under XP.
DISPLAYING NETWORK CONNECTIONS: You can access the network and connections that have been set up on any machine under Vista and XP with “Start | Run” and the “ncpa.cpl” line command.
QUICKER COPYING UNDER XP: There is a “Yes for all” button but no "No for all". Keep the [Shift] key pressed when clicking “No” in any file copy dialog box. This ensures that your decision is used for all files being copied.
INGENIOUS WAY OF RENAMING FILES: When you select several file entries and change the name of the first one, Windows XP and Vista give the other files consecutive numbers
MAGNIFYING DESKTOP OBJECTS: With [Windows] + [U], you can directly open the Utility Manager that offers access to a screen magnifier and screen keyboard.
DISPLAYING INSTALLED PROGRAMS: Type “regsvr32appwiz.cpl” at the command prompt if the list of installed programs does not show under XP.
Windows XP was getting really slow so you reinstalled it. However, Windows Messenger loaded again by default. You don’t use this messenger to chat at all, but it cannot be removed using the “Add/Remove Programs” dialog box. By default, Windows does not show Messenger in the list of installed software. However, the corresponding entry is only hidden. You can change this—and shut the chatterbox up. Open the “sysoc.inf” file in Notepad—its location, as per the standard installation is “C:\Windows\Inf”. Search for the following line in the text file:
msmsgs-msgrocm .dll,OcEntry,msmsgs. inf,hide,7
Delete “hide”. Make sure you don’t delete the comma with it. After saving the file, open “Start | Control Panel | Software” and select “Add/remove Windows components”. The list shows an
entry for Windows Messenger, which you can now uninstall.
Some applications with numerous windows are already running and this is what happens when you start another program: Windows refuses to open it, showing an error message which says “Out of memory”. But the Task Manager shows sufficient physical memory and swap space.
The system intermediate memory, “Desktopheap”, which is too small by default, is probably responsible for this—Windows again tampers with its history here. Windows uses the heap for managing the open applications. There are problems if too many windows are open. The behavior can also be prompted: about fifty instances of Internet Explorer can be shown; all other windows are disfigured size of the heap is defined in the registry, independent of the main and virtual memory. Increase the value to use more programs at the same time.
For this, start the registry editor with “Start | Run”, “regedit” and [Enter] and open the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\CurrentControlSet\Control \ Session Manager\SubSystems” key. Double-click the “Windows” entry on the right. A long function call appears as a character string. In this, look for the “SharedSection” parameter. It determines the system and desktop heap in this format: SharedSection-xxxx,yyyy You will see “xxxx” for the maximum size of the heap in the entire system and “yyyy” for the size of the heap per desktop, each in KB. You only need to increase the value for the desktop by 256 or 512 KB to prevent the annoying error messages from showing. Do not forget to restart your system so that the changes have the desired effect.
Some applications with numerous windows are already running and this is what happens when you start another program: Windows refuses to open it, showing an error message which says “Out of memory”. But the Task Manager shows sufficient physical memory and swap space.
The system intermediate memory, “Desktopheap”, which is too small by default, is probably responsible for this—Windows again tampers with its history here. Windows uses the heap for managing the open applications. There are problems if too many windows are open. The behavior can also be prompted: about fifty instances of Internet Explorer can be shown; all other windows are disfigured size of the heap is defined in the registry, independent of the main and virtual memory. Increase the value to use more programs at the same time.
For this, start the registry editor with “Start | Run”, “regedit” and [Enter] and open the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\CurrentControlSet\Control \ Session Manager\SubSystems” key. Double-click the “Windows” entry on the right. A long function call appears as a character string. In this, look for the “SharedSection” parameter. It determines the system and desktop heap in this format: SharedSection-xxxx,yyyy You will see “xxxx” for the maximum size of the heap in the entire system and “yyyy” for the size of the heap per desktop, each in KB. You only need to increase the value for the desktop by 256 or 512 KB to prevent the annoying error messages from showing. Do not forget to restart your system so that the changes have the desired effect.
Most of the time, the camera is not responsible for missing color density, but the surrounding light is. The time of the day, cloud cover and alignment of the camera to the source of light are deciding factors when it comes to color density. If you direct your camera closer to the sun and then take a picture, the colors will be paler. But you can optimize weak colors even after taking a picture.
The method we have described is contrast distribution of the shadows and highlights, i.e., the dark and the bright parts of the picture. You can do this with an S-shaped gradation curve, but the technique There is one easy alternative for portrait photos: layer overlapping in Photoshop.
SEARCHING THE CONTRAST: Open the image and the “Channels” pallet in the “Window” menu. One after another, click the individual color channels and find out which one has the most conspicuous contrasts—this is often the blue channel, but it depends on the subject. Now press the [Ctrl] key and click the channel symbol at the same time—this selects the bright tonal values. Then click “RGB” to redisplay all color information.
BRIGHTENING THE HIGHLIGHTS: Call up the “Layers” pallet with [F7] and press the [Ctrl] + [J] key combination. Photoshop accepts this selection as a new layer. When you now change the filling method to “Screen” using the selection field up in the pallet, the program also brightens the dark areas.
DARKENING THE SHADES: Reload the selection, i.e., click the new layer by keeping the [Ctrl] key pressed. With “Selection | Inverse”, invert the selected mask area. Again create a new layer with [Ctrl] + [J] on the basis of this selection. Now set “Multiply” as the filling method— this accentuates dark areas.
FINAL TOUCHES: In case you think that the contrast is too strong, you can easily moderate it: For this, reduce the opacity of each layer at the top right of the layers pallet. Experiment with other filling methods to see how they affect the image. “Lighten” and "Overlay” are also suitable for natural looking contrast intensification. Others give rise to slightly artistic effects. Finally, bring together all layers with “Flatten Image”.
Is it necessary to pull out your camera only when the sun is shining bright? Even shady weather has its appeal. So you should go on a photo tour on a day when there are dark clouds and stormy winds. In case you have a DSLR, you should think in advance about which lens you want to use. This is because changing the lens outdoors when the weather is bad is dangerous to the extent that the sensitive insides of the camera can get damp and dirty. So, put on your raincoat, protect your camera well and get going!
You can find dozens of dramatic and sensational subjects for photography in harsh weather—particularly just after a downpour, the sun popping through the clouds gives rise to breathtakingly dense and evocative light conditions. The moisture on flowers, grass, bushes and fields intensifies their colors—you can strengthen this impression even more using a polarization filter. But don’t forget the sky after looking at this colorful performance. Heavy, gray towers of clouds often create an imposing atmosphere. Capture as much as of this beauty as possible with your camera. This implies: take a photo from a lower angle; you can even lie down so as to make the most of it. The advantage of this extreme perspective is that you can capture blades of grass or ears of corn in the foreground so that they appear very large and thus get photos from unusual angles.
You often configure the browser using the “about:config” address entry. But looking for the right setting in the endless list is quite difficult. Besides, you also the run the risk of changing the wrong parameters by mistake.
The free English add-in Configuration Mania offers the option of making innumerable settings of the advanced configuration of Firefox with the help of an interactive dialog. The tool is available for download at https://addons. mozilla.org/en-Us/firefox/addon/4420. To install it, open the XPI file with the browser or click “Add to Firefox” on the website. Install the additional software by clicking “Install now”. You can then reach the extensive settings dialog from “Tools | Configuration Mania”. First click the desired category at the top of the dialog box, “Browser” or “Security” for instance. You will then have more tabs for selection for the respective settings. You will find a hierarchical menu in the “Browser” category. Here, click the plus sign in front of “TabBrowsing” for instance. Then look for “Save sessions at intervals of”. You can change the value for the frequency with which Firefox automatically saves the current status of your session so that it can be restored if the system crashes. The default value of “10000” is a figure in milliseconds so that a backup of the data is created every 10 seconds. The corresponding entry for “about:config” is “browser.sessionstore. interval”—it is more difficult to locate this in the long list than through this dialog. Countless other settings can be made in a similar manner.
Perhaps a new offer by the software company Adobe. It is an interesting mixture of photo community and photo editor. The advantage: it can be loaded on the PC from program components without installation and runs entirely on the web. Adobe provides you with 2 GB of free web space after you register on www.photoshop. com/express. You can upload and edit your photos on this space and present them to your friends.You can optimize the photos, crop them, hide red eyes, correct exposure or switch to black and white with the most important functions directly in the browser—with lightning speed. It is also possible to make extreme modifications such as distorting the image contents. You cannot do this using the same tools as in the professional program, you have small thumbnails at your disposal—thus one can preview the effects of an action. The function is comparable with “Filters” in Photoshop.After editing the photos, you can directly store them on the web space or download them to your computer. You can even email the photos from this space. Adobe works together with the photo community Flickr, and photos can be loaded in Photoshop Express directly from Flickr and can be edited there. Photoshop is more or less standard for editing digital photos—but many hobby photographers find it too expensive and too complicated. As a community fan, you also find it complicated to first edit the photos on a PC and then upload them. You are looking for an easier way to do all this.
The photo communities have scores of interesting photos. Some of them would make excellent desktop backgrounds. But when downloading, only the empty file “spaceball.gif” is downloaded on your computer. If a Flickr user does not want to make his photos easily available for download, he can set a corresponding access setting in Flickr. it then automatically displays the transparent file “spaceball.gif” instead of the photo. However, this is not a very effective way of protecting the photos, since your browser anyway downloads the photo into its cache on your computer when the photo is viewed.But you don’t have to go through the ordeal of looking through the cache. Firefox can help you find the photo much quicker. As soon as the download dialog displays the “spaceball.gif” file for saving, abort the action and right-click next to the photo. Then select the “View Page Info” context command and activate the “Media” tab. The list shows all the graphics on this page. Click an entry to see the preview in the lower part of the dialog box. Keep scrolling till you find the desired image. Then click “Save As” and save the image on the hard disk.There are other specialized add ins that also facilitate the download of blocked photos. You can completely stop Flickr from showing the transparent file by using the Adblock Plus ad blocker. You can download this tool free of cost from https://addons.mozilla.org/ en-Us/firefox/addon/1865. As soon as the add-in is installed, right-click the superimposed photo and select the “Adblock Plus: block graphic” context command. The link to “spaceball.gif” is selected in the first line. Simply confirm the dialog with “OK”. In the future, you will be able to download all Flickr photos as usual using the context menu. Similarly, the superimposed graphic can be blocked with the Nuke Anything Enhanced add-in. NOTE: The user intends to prevent unauthorized use of his photos when he blocks them. Thus, you should make it a point to observe the license clauses and not use the photo without the consent of the person who has blocked it.
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