Each time you connect to a Wi-Fi hot spot, whether it's in a restaurant or at home, it logs the name of the access point that you connected to in the Windows Preferred Network settings.

If you're like us and you accidentally connect to your neighbor's access point, and then find yourself reconnecting again despite your efforts not to, you need to relocate your neighbors access point listing down in your connection list and move your router to the top.

Here's how to do it.

Click > Start > Connect To > Wireless Network Connection

When the new window opens, click the Properties button in the lower left, then the Wireless Networks tab at the top.

Under Preferred Networks look for your home, work, or favorite router name. Highlight it and use the Move Up button to move the selection to the top of the list.

Done!

This prioritizes the connection to your preferred hot spot's access points.

You can also use the Remove button to eliminate the auto-connection of networks that are no longer used or those that happen to be at your neighbor's house. Although if you're like us you might keep it at the bottom for emergency use—just in case your Internet connection goes in the toilet.

Foxmarks
If you use more than one computer then Foxmarks might become handy as it keeps your bookmarks and passwords (optionally) synchronized.

Adblock Plus
This is a must-have add-on for Firefox. Many sites have annoying flash ads in them. Not anymore – Adblock plus blocks them all!

Sxipper

Tired of filling in various web forms and all the spam you get on your e-mail? This add-on automatically fills in registration forms and creates fake e-mails which forward to your e-mail. If you get too much spam from one of the fake e-mail you just cancel forwarding. Simple as that!

Greasemonkey
If you want to make your browsing more comfortable then this comes handy as you can use all the user made scripts. The largest script database is at Userscripts.

FireFTP
Don’t want to install an extra program for FTP? Download this add-on and you gain FTP access to servers from your browser.

ChatZilla
Another useful add-on with which you can chat on IRC networks and you don’t have to install a separate program!

1. The Local Group Policy Editor

Such a pity this tool only exists on Windows XP Professional, as this lets you customize just about everything on your PC. To open it, go to Start >

Run, and type gpedit.msc

The Group Policy Editor is much easier to use than the registry, and pretty much anyone can understand it. You need to have a Windows XP Professional computer and admin privileges to use it though.

2. Disk Defragmenter

This useful tool lets you fix any fragmented drives on your pc. Defragmenting helps avoid file corruption and speeds up accessing files on the hard drive. To defragment a drive, go to Start > All Programs >Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.

Choose the hard drive you want and press Defragment. Depending on how fragmented the drive is, this might take a long time. It’s a good idea to leave your PC on for the night to do this. It’s also a good idea to automatically defrag files.

3. System Restore

So you accidentally activated a virus or installed some spyware? This is how to fix the messed-up PC. System Restore lets you restore your settings and installed programs to any restore point, which is usually created when installing a program or doing a major system change. The system restore tool can be accessed from Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.

4. Registry Editor

The registry editor lets you customize and change everything there is on your pc. It is a very advanced tool and difficult to master. To open it, type regedit into the run box from the start menu.

5. Backup or Restore

The backup / restore wizard is available from Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup.

It is like the System restore tool, but lets you back up or restore files instead of system settings. You should regularly back up your important files, as this is pretty much the only way to get them back after an accidental deletion or drive corruption. You need a flash disk or hard drive to save the backup onto.

The Remote Desktop Connection utility is a very useful tool, especially if you need to access your work computer at home, or vice-versa. It lets you create a direct connection between two computers, one able to control the other. Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1: Setting up the Remote Computer account

Log in as administrator on the computer you want to access over the connection. Go to Control Panel -> User Accounts and decide which user’s desktop you want to connect to. Click the account and choose Create Password. I suggest you make a strong password to keep out unwanted guests. abc123 definitely isn’t a strong password. You need a password on the remote account or the connection won’t work. Go back to Control Panel and choose System -> Remote (Note: If there is no “System” Section in the Control Panel, type Control Panel/system into the address bar.) Make sure the box Allow Users to Remotely Connect to this Computer is checked and press the button Select Remote Users. Click Add and type the account name(s) you want to connect to and press OK.


Step 2: Finding the IP Address of the Remote Computer

Before you move onto the other one, find out the IP address of the remote computer.

To do this, type cmd into the Run box from the Start Menu and press Run.

Type ipconfig into the command prompt to display the IP address properties.

All you need from here right now is the IP address, so write that down. Now you can log off and move onto the local computer that you want to access the remote one with.

Step 3: Connecting to the Remote Computer

Open Start > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection.

Type in the IP address of the remote computer, (the one you copied earlier) and press Connect.

Now you will be asked for the username and password of the remote account. Enter them and continue.

After a few moments, a full screen window should open up and you should be able to control the remote computer.

If the connection is slow, close it, reopen Remote Desktop Connection and Choose Options before you connect. Set the color and quality a little lower and try again.

Use these steps to rename the Recycle Bin:

1. Open up the Registry editor by typing regedit into the run box from the Start Menu.

2. Locate HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

3. Change the registry value “Recycle Bin” To anything. (Remember to exclude the quotes!)

Done!
You must restart your PC to see the change.

Tired of your XP? Want to buy Vista? Well, don’t. Vista is still full of bugs and not reliable yet. So what’s so good about it? Most people like the new and pretty looks.
It’s a great idea to mix together the good things from both Windows systems: the reliability of XP and looks of Vista.

To do this we need to change the boring XP theme to match the design of Vista, which is not exactly as straightforward as copy-paste, as XP only allows its own handful of themes which are all mostly dull. We need to modify the uxtheme.dll file in your system directory. The easiest way is to download a patched up version and replace it with the original. You can get one here:
service pack 1 or service pack 2 .

It’s a good idea to use replacer, which also backs up the original file if a problem occurs.

To replace uxtheme.dll go to the System32 folder in C://WINDOWS and look for it.
Drag it into the replacer window. Next drag the replacement file which you downloaded also into the window and confirm the replacement.

There are various Vista-looking themes on the web, I recommend VistaXP or YAVFC which you can download from deviantart. Unzip the folder and paste it to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes.
You’ll need StyleXP to use the themes.

And that’s that!
Enjoy your fake Vista and be sure to show off to your friends

Of course, don’t have to stop there, download the Vista cursor pack, add one of the many Vista wallpapers and even get the TRANSPARENT explorer and internet explorer, which are almost as good as the real ones.

Any ordinary USB memory device can do a lot more than you probably thought it could. It can carry programs, encryption and even a full installation of Windows XP! Here is our tenlist for the
coolest things you can do with a USB thumb drive:

Take your programs with you

We all know how frustrating it is when we take your files to another computer just to discover that the software required to read the files is not installed.

Here’s the simplest solution – take your programs with you – on your USB thumb drive. Here’s how to do it with Portable Apps:

1. Go to the Portable Apps website and download the installer, choosing the software you want to carry along.

2. Run the installer and install the software to the root of your USB thumb drive.

And you’re done! As soon as you connect your thumb drive into a computer, Portable Apps will open up automatically.

Surf anonymously

With Portable Apps and Firefox, you can surf the web without leaving any trace on the computer you are using. If you want extra security, install a Firefox security plugin such as FoxyProxy. To iput Firefox onto the drive, just copy-paste the Firefox folder from you computer, or install Firefox onto the thumb drive.

Set a program to run automatically (autorun)

Using autorun, you can set a program to start up automatically when you connect the drive to a computer. You can also use the same script for a data CD-ROM. Note that some computers have autorun disabled for security purposes. [Here's how to disable autorun.]

Open up notepad and paste the following script:

[autorun]

ShellExecute=filename

Label=description

UseAutoPlay=1

Make sure you replace filename with the full path to the file. For example, a file called program.exe in a folder called “programs” on the thumb drive would be /programs/program.exe

Replace description with a short description of the program, for example, My Jukebox or Mozilla Firefox.

Save the file as autorun.inf, making sure you select “All Programs” from the save menu, not “Text document”!

Help! I’m lost!

Ever lost a USB drive? Even if you haven’t, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll lose a few during your life. And with all the important information on it, it could be a disaster to have it fall into someone’s hands.

A good idea is to encrypt all the information on the drive, but you would still want it back, wouldn’t you? Luckily, the folks at the Daily Cup Of Tech have come up with a solution.

Save a program called “Help! I’m Lost!” on the drive, that a finder just can’t get around opening. The program opens a message box with your personal “I’m lost” message. It’s a good idea to offer the finder a bigger reward than the drive itself, so that they’ll be interested in contacting you.

Hide the drive inside something

Why not surprise your friends and co-workers by sticking something that looks like a broken USB cable into the computer’s USB drive?

You’ll be sure to get a few shocked faces when you start to play a movie from it.

The guys from Technobuzz.net show us how to do it. (You are gonna need an unbelievably small thumb drive for this…)

Secure your PC

Just like with an RFID badge, you can use a USB drive to lock and unlock a PC. Insert it to begin working and pull it out when you’ve finished, locking the computer. There are several programs for this . Rohos, a commercial program and WiKID, a semi-open source one.

If you really need to secure your computer with a USB drive, I suggest you give Rohos a try, as WiKID is rather complicated.

Portable jukebox

Don’t just carry the music with you, also carry the player! You can install audio programs such as WinAmp and CoolPlayer+ on your thumb drive. Just unextract the ZIP folders to the USB drive.

If you want the jukebox to start up automatically when you connect the memory stick to the computer, use the autorun feature shown tip 3 and point it to the exe of your audio player.

Encrypt your data

If you carry any sensitive indormation on your USB memory stick, a good idea is to encrypt it. Hardware-level encryption will help, but it will cost extra. You can get a free program to encrypt your data just as securely. For this I recommend TrueCrypt, but most others will also do.

You will need admin access on the computer you want to use your encrypted thumb drive on, so this it’s usability a little.

Run a standalone OS for dedicated tasks

The easiest OS to boot from a USB drive is probably Linux. There are many small capacity Linux versions out there that will fit on your drive. The best 3 are Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux and Webconverger.

Make sure you select a version that needs less space than your USB drive’s maximum, so you have room for files and software.

And this leads us nicely to the final tip…

Run Windows itself from a USB thumb drive
Modifying Windows to work on a USB drive is quite difficult, but luckily there are some tools that will do it for us. Note that you will need a separate Windows license for this, as Microsoft only lets you use one for each single computer, and a USB drive is treated by them like a computer…

What you’ll need:

1. A licensed copy of Windows
2. A USB device, min. 1GB (We recommend a USB hard disk, as a flash memory stick will become unusable after 100000 writing processes. Assuming that only 2 processes are used per second, the drive will last only 60 days with 8 hours of work each day… A hard disk doesn’t have this problem.)