HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

Removing this image should speed up the time it takes for the remote login box to appear.

Oh, and as a disclaimer editing the registry incorrectly could render you machine unusable so please use caution.

CTRL + ALT + END
This should send the command to the remote desktop and not your local machine.

Another solution which doesn’t get the exact same effect but might get you where you need to go is to right click the taskbar and choose “Task Manager …” from the context menu. On some machines from the task manager window you will be able to click “Shut Down” from the file menu which will let you shut down, restart or log off the machine.

Here is how to reclaim your bandwidth:

Click Start -> Run -> and type gpedit.msc
Got to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> QOS Packet Scheduler -> Limit Reservable Bandwidth
Double click Limit Reservable Bandwidth, tick Enable and change the Bandwidth limit (%) to 0

ClearType – isn’t a big change and you will probably forget you enabled it a day later but in the long run I feel it will help ease eyestrain. (my opinion: install)

HTML Slide Show Wizard - wizard helps you create an HTML slide show of your digital pictures, ready to place on your Web site. (my opinion: use jalbum or picasa)

Alt-Tab replacement – adds a preview of the page your switching to in the Alt-Tab box. Now its not Vista-like but you will enjoy the page preview specially if you open multiple windows of the same app. (my opinion: use TaskSwitchXP)

Tweak UI – gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. I went through all the options and it offers quit a bit, but I didn’t really change anything. I guess its good I know where to go now to easily change some settings. (my opinion: install)

Image Resizer – enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click. About a month ago I went searching for a quick batch image resizer, I came up with Image Converter One. After finding this I will only use the Image Converter One from my portable apps when on the go. (my opinion: install)

Virtual Desktop Manager – allows you to manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar. Have you ever wanted more space on your desktop? Well instead of buying a bigger monitor you should try out a virtual desktop. All virtual desktop managers are pretty much the same, it just depends on how simple or flashy you want it. (simple: Microsoft Virtual Desktop Manager; medium: yod’m 3D; flashy; shock 4way)

Taskbar Magnifier – magnifies part of the screen from the taskbar. (my opinion: I would never need it)

The charities:

American Red Cross – *red+u
Boys & Girls Clubs of America – *bgca
National AIDS Fund – *naf
The Humane Society of the United States – *hsus
ninemillion.org – *9mil
National Multiple Sclerosis Society – *mssoc
Sierra Club – *sierra
UNICEF – *unicef
StopGlobalWarming.org – *help
Susan G. Komen for the Cure – *komen

Ok, so you’ve found the perfect theme for your phone now what do you do with that .tsk file? Well the first step is to connect your phone to your PC. Now you need to open ActiveSync if it isn’t already open. You’ll want to click the Explore button in the ActiveSync (see screenshot).

Once you have clicked to explore you phone you’ll want to browse into the “My Documents” folder and paste the .tsk theme file into this directory. Now that you have the them on your phone the only thing left to do is activate the theme. You’ll want to grab your phone and go to the settings and click on the “Today Screen”. Once you have this pulled up you should see a list of available themes. Choose the one you just installed and you’re all set.

Why use remote desktop? For a system administrator you can manage all of your servers and workstations from a single computer, for an individual I’m sure you have gotten somewhere and forgot a file, picture, or something? Well with RDP you can remote in and email it to yourself.

I bet your ready to get started now, aren’t ya! Well we need to make sure some security measures are in place, because if you can reach your computer remotely so can someone else.

1. You need to make sure you have a password for all user accounts that are going to use RDP. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts

Select the users you want to allow access through RDP, then select create/change password. I suggest you use a password that is not found in the dictionary along with a number and/or a capital letter.

2. Next we turn on the RDP and grant access to your user. So go to Start -> Right click on My Computer and select properties (or Windows logo + Break from our keyboard shortcuts article) -> Select the Remote tab and check the Allow users to connect remotely to this computer. Then click Select Remote Users… add, and add your user.

3. If you don’t have a router you can skip to step 4. We need to set up port forwarding on your routers interface. You will want to go to your firewall settings in your router and add a new setting (router interfaces are all different so this may not be exact).

Source/incoming:

interface: WAN

IP range: * (unless you only want to access from 1 computer then you would enter its IP address)

Destination/outgoing:

interface: LAN

IP range: this is the internal ip of you computer (not to be confuse w/ the external ip you use to connect) if you do not know it you can go to Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections -> dbl click on Local Area Connection -> Support tab and its the IP address (or Windows + R -> type CMD -> type ipconfig)

Protocol: TCP

Port Rang: 3389

Schedule: you can set at what times during the day you want to allow access.

4. To access RDP from another computer you need to know your IP. The thing about IP’s if you don’t pay for a static IP it will change on you with out notice. DynDns offers a good FREE product, you can download an auto IP updater thingy that works with DynDNS to keep your IP updated automatically.

5. From another computer you can go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Remote Desktop Connection (or Windows + R, and type mstsc) Enter your IP address or dyndns domain and your “in like Flynn”

• Craigslist (a city’s home page was a little out of whack but no big deal)
• Google Maps (this was all screwed up, not usable at all)
• eBay (while trying to scroll though some auctions w/ a scroll wheel, it kept bumping me back to the top of the page “very annoying”)
• Google Toolbar 3 (this made IE crash right away, I had to remove it from my active toolbars)
• MSN (this if kinda funny, there is a format bug in the rotating image that display’s “more on MSN”)

There were also some problems of different pages with fly out menus and images that their size is specified in html. On the plus side they added some new features like session restore (like Firefox has) webslices, and an IE7 emulator. Why would anyone want to emulate IE7? All in all I didn’t have any problem with IE8 that I’m sure they wont fix. As long as it doesn’t crash I’ll be happy!!!

PS. This article was written from Firefox 3 Beta 4.

CTRL + A: Select all
CTRL + C: Copy
CTRL + F: Find
CTRL + N: New dialog box
CTRL + O: Open
CTRL + P: Print
CTRL + S: Save
CTRL + V: Paste
CTRL + X: Cut
CTRL + Z: Undo
CTRL + F4: Closes a window
CTRL while dragging: Copy the selected item
CTRL + SHIFT: Highlight items or text

ALT + SPACEBAR: Opens the shortcut menu
ALT + TAB: Cycle though open items

Windows Logo: Displays the start bar
Windows + Break: System Properties
Windows + D: Desktop
Windows + M: Minimize all windows
Windows + E: My Computer
Windows + F: Search
Windows + L: Lock Computer

TAB: Cycle foward through options
SHIFT + TAB: Cycle backwards through options
ENTER: Perform command
SPACEBAR: Select
END: Display the bottom of the window
HOME: Display the top of the window