Roobaroo

Bring Back Desktop Icons That Are Gone, Missing or Disappeared

June 16th, 2008

Occasionally a user will accidentally click on wrong place and all their desktop icons will be gone. They won’t be able to find the icons anywhere on the desktop. All their My Computer and My Documents shortcuts will be missing and even their recycling bin will be gone. They will be left with a plain background or a wallpaper.

It is easy to bring them back! Simply right click on your desktop, go to Arrange Icons By and then select Show Desktop Icons.

Wait several seconds and your desktop icons will be back.

Turn Off Auto Correction in Microsoft Office

June 15th, 2008

Microsoft Office suite comes with some annoying features such as automatic capitalization of the first letter of the first word each time you end the sentence with a period. Many of these features are helpful but at times when you copy text from Microsoft Word and paste in somewhere else the formatting will be lost because it does not recognize Microsoft Office Word format. Same will happen if you are using Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project or Publisher.

To avoid this, it is helpful to turn off auto correction feature in Microsoft Office.

If you are using Microsoft Office 2000 or 2003 version, you can turn of the automatic correction features by going to Tools -> Auto-Correction -> Deselect the features you want turned off.

If you are using the latest Microsoft Office 2007, you can turn off auto correction features by clicking on the Microsoft Office Button and then selecting Word Options. Note: If you want to turn off auto correction for other office programs such as PowerPoint then you would follow the same procedures but you will see PowerPoint Options.

Click Proofing and select AutoCorrect Options.

Now deselect the options you want disabled.

• Correct TWo INitial CApitals
• Capitalize first letter of sentences
• Capitalize names of days
• Correct accidental use of cAPS LOCK key
• Capitalize first letter of table cells

Install Windows Vista Cursors in XP

June 15th, 2008

Windows Vista has one of the best selection of cursors compared to other popular operating systems. Windows XP users can now have that same clear-cut cursors of Windows Vista on their system. Windows Vista’s cursors are anti-aliased, the edges are much more softer, and animated. The loading cursors changes to a cursor with an animated circle.

To install, download the Aero Cursors package.

Unzip the files, right click install.ini and select install.

Go to Start, Control Panel and select Mouse. Navigate over to Pointers tab.

Under scheme, select Aero Cursors (Alphablended).

Click OK and you are done. Cheers!

How to Record or Delete Videos and Pictures from HP QuickPlay

June 7th, 2008

Users of HP Pavilion Notebook can record videos and take pictures in QuickPlay with the integrated HP webcam or even 3rd party camera. If you have Windows Vista with HP QuickPlay installed on your HP Pavilion laptop, you can easily record movies or take pictures by launching HP QuickPlay.

Click on Video icon from the menu and select HP webcam in the Source column.

From your QuickPlay Control Panel, click the record button to record and stop button to stop the recording. You can also take snapshots by selecting the last button in the Control Panel. To delete the pictures and videos that you just have taken is tricky in Windows Vista.

You videos and pictures are by default saved to

C:\Users\Public\Videos\HP Webcam\webcam_2008067_1541.mpg

To reach that folder, press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to bring up the run box.

Then type in the following:

C:\USERS\Public\Videos

Press OK and you will be at a folder where all your HP QuickPlay movies and pictures are stored. From here you can delete the videos and pictures you want. Creating a shortcut to this folder on your desktop to make it easeir to access all your QuickPlay pictures and videos in future. To create a shortcut on your desktop, right click on the folder called “Videos” and select send to “Desktop (create shortcut)”.

Now you can freely browse, edit or burn QuickPlay videos and pictures right from your desktop!

Wallpaper Manager for the Gnome Desktop

June 7th, 2008

Desktop Drapes is a Gnome desktop application for those that love randomizing your desktop wallpaper. Users can add wallpapers they like to the list and select how often do you want the wallpaper to be changed. Indeed, a nifty little tool for your desktop eye candy list.

Desktop Drapes goes a step further and automatically adds the wallpaper to the list from a specified folder. So a user can simply save wallpapers to a dictionary and Desktop Drapes will do the rest.

To install Desktop Drapes, open up a Terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install drapes

How to Delete a File That Won’t Delete

June 6th, 2008

Whenever you try to delete a file that is being used at the time, you will get this error in Windows XP: “Cannot delete [file name]: It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.” Below is a screenshot of “Error Deleting File or Folder”.

Usually closing the folder or file you are using and then retrying to delete the file or folder works. But some files, for instance from Desktop, won’t delete no matter what you try. They will keep giving you the error telling the file or folder is being used by another person or program.

The solution is the Remove on Reboot Shell Extension which is a straightforward shell extension that will automatically remove the files you select after a reboot.

Simply download the application and install it. Then just right-click any file you want to delete, select the option “Delete on Reboot” and the file will automatically be deleted on the next system reboot.

Download HTC Diamond Ringtones and Alerts

June 6th, 2008

HTC Touch Diamond is a new Windows Mobile 6.1 powered device and also the successor of HTC Touch. The release date for HTC Diamond Pocket PC phone is set for June 2008 in Europe and then the rest of the world later this year. Its main features include the new and improved TouchFLO 3D technology from the old TouchFLO interface on HTC Touch. Some of the common names for HTC Diamond are O2 XDA Diamond and T-Mobile MDA Compact IV

The ringtones on HTC Diamond are short and sweet with a modern tune. Here are the 82 ringtones and alerts extracted from the Pocket PC’s leaked ROM. The format is WMA (Windows Media Audio). Click here to download the ringtones and alerts.

The ringtones above are all in WMA format and should work on Windows Mobile 6 devices. To install the ringtones on your Pocket PC, download the above file and extract all the files to your Windows Mobile My Documents folder either on the storage car d or the device. Alternatively, users have reported that extracting the files to your Windows folder on the device should also work.

Once all the files are on your device to the designated destination, go to Start -> Settings -> Personal > Sounds and Notifications. Here you should be able to select the new HTC Diamond ringtones for your phone and set it as the ringtone and as alerts.