If you are using IE, you may have this problem, when you try to open a new browser window only to find about:blank is what will greet you. You try to change it back but either your Internet Options are greyed out or you change the page back, only to find next time you start Internet Explorer the dreaded About:blank has returned.
About:blank is a special page within most browsers. It is simply a benign page that’s built in to your browser. It’s not something to “get rid of”.
It’s the page that your browser displays when it has nothing else to display. That’s all.
The problem, of course, is that about:blank can show up unexpectedly, and people get confused about why, and what to do next.
How to deal with about blank page?
Method 1: Reset IE settings.
1. Open Internet Explorer, click on the “gear icon” in the upper right part of your browser, then click again on Internet Options.
2. In the “Internet Options” dialog box, click on the “Advanced” tab, then click on the “Reset” button.
3. In the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” section, select the “Delete personal settings” check box, then click on “Reset” button.
4. When Internet Explorer has completed its task, click on the “Close” button in the confirmation dialogue box. You will now need to close your browser, and then you can open Internet Explorer again.
Method 2:Turn off; turn on Internet Explorer from Turn Windows Feature on or off.
1. Open Control Panel
2. Click Turn Windows Feature on or off in Program section and press enter.
3. Uncheck Internet Explorer to turn off and restart the computer.
4. Follow above steps and check the Internet Explorer to turn on.
5. Restart the computer and check the issue status.
How to Recover Deleted Files in Windows For Free? Check this video
Most users’ computers have more than two partitions, we store different files and folders in different partitions. I am no exception, I have four partitions in my desktop, that is C: System, D: Backup, E: Work, F: Entertainment. There are some secret files and important documents that I don’t want to be seen by anyone, so it is imperative to hide this partition or the important files from the prying eyes. In this tutorial, I am gonna show you how to hide any free partition( the system partition not included), files and folders.
1. Follow the next steps to hide a partition:
Step 1: Right mouse click on Computer
Step 2: Click on Manage
Step 3: From the list of options click on Disk Management that will be located in the left bottom section
Step 4: All your hard disks and its partitions will be shown in the right hand side
Step 5: Right mouse click on the partition that you want to hide and select “Change Drive Letters and Paths”
Step 6: Click on “Remove” and click “Yes”
Step 7: Your drive will now be hidden in Computer
To unhide the partition :
Step 1: Go to Disk Management again and right mouse click on the hidden partition (there will not be a drive letter on the hidden drive) again select “Change Drive Letters and Path”
Step 2: Click on Add and select an appropriate drive letter.
Step 3: Click OK
Step 4: Now the drive is visible.
But this partition hiding technique also has disadvantages:
1. What if I just want to hide some files but not the whole partition.
2. Security issue, I mean some other guys with some computer skills can unhide this partition with several clicks, it is not very safe.
So it is more convenient and secure if we can hide any file or folder we want and also encrypt them.
Wise Folder Hider(http://www.wisecleaner.com/wisefolderhider.html) is a perfect solution for that. It is freeware, you don’t need any license key to use it.
It is pretty straightforward to hide files and folders with it. The first time you opened it, you are prompted a window asking you to create your password. Next time you open it, just type in the password. If you want to hide any file, folder or a USB, just click the corresponding tab and choose the target file, folder or USB, or just drag and drop any files or folders into it. Simple like that.
Not simple enough? I have an easier way. When you installed Wise Folder Hider, a shortcut of it is automatically added to your context menu. You can just right click any file or folder and then choose Hide Folder with Wise Folder, there you go, it is hidden by Wise Folder Hider.
Still not satisfied? Some users may be concerned that I have to unhide the files when I need them, and hide them again when I am done using. What if I forget to hide them? Even I remember every time I use them, it is too many steps for me. The good thing about Wise Folder Hider is you can open any hidden files in Wise Folder Hider, you don’t have to unhide and hide a file over and over again. When you open any hidden files in it, it becomes visible to you. When you Close Wise Folder Hider, it becomes hidden again.
Hope the things I said above can be of help to you guys.
How to Recover Deleted Files in Windows For Free? Check this video
Most computer users know that we should click the safe removal icon before we actually unplug the USB flash drive or external drive. Or else it will lead to data loss, corrupt USB drive, blah blah blah. But it is real convenient if we can just unplug it when we are done using it. In this tutorial, I will show you how to safely remove your USB drive just by unplugging it.
Note: For some computer this option may be enabled by default, so you can follow this tutorial to find out if it is enabled or not.
Here is how:
Step 1: Plugin your USB flash drive or external drive into your desktop or laptop computer, then search for device manager
Step 2: Press Enter on your keyboard and Device Manager window will open
Step 3: Expand Disk Drive tree and locate your external removable drive. On my computer for example its called Multiple Card Reader USB Device.
Step 4: Right mouse click on that removable drive and from context menu choose Properties
Step 5: Now choose Policies tab
Step 6: In this new window you should have two options
1. Quick Removal (Default)
2. Better Performance
Step 7: If first option Quick Removal is selected you don’t have to make any additional changes and simply close the window. Otherwise if it’t now selected, do so and then click OK to save changes.
Next time simply unplug your external USB drive ir hard drive without any worries that you may damage him or its data.
Reminder: If you do prefer a better transfer speed, you should choose Better Performance, and defrag the hard drive of your computer and external hard drive more often with Wise Care 365. But don’t defrag your USB flash stick because it will decrease its lifespan. Of course, with Better Performance selected, you should click safe removal icon and then unplug the USB drive.
Turning Off System Restore Improves Performance: FALSE
System Restore is a real aid when it comes to rolling back bad Windows patches and driver updates, but by its very nature, it is said to impact performance because it’s always creating restore points, thus robbing you of a little power. The truth: System Restore lurks idle most of the time and rarely does anything at all, creating checkpoints only during app installs plus once every 24 hours by default. Even then it spends only a few seconds doing so and only during idle time. It’s virtually unthinkable that you’d try to run a program at the exact same time that System Restore began creating a restore point, and even if you did, you probably wouldn’t notice. The proof is in the benchmarks: We got nearly identical results on PCMark whether System Restore was on or off. (Note, however, that System Restore can consume a fair amount of disk space—this is configurable—so if gigabytes are precious to you, consider throttling it back.)
Defragmenting SSD Drives Is Useful: FALSE
Regardless of the actual value of defragmenting a physical hard disk (see the tip below), there’s really no value at all in defragging an SSD. The reason has to do with the way flash memory is constructed. The theory behind defragmenting a hard drive is to order data into contiguous, uninterrupted segments of the disk. But flash memory isn’t built that way: Blocks of data are placed throughout the drive space and are all accessible with the exact same speed, and since there are no moving parts in an SSD, there’s no advantage to rearranging them. Some even caution that, since flash memory is limited to a finite number of writes before it fails, defragmenting can actually do more harm than good.
Defragmenting Your Hard Drive Improves Performance: TRUE
One of the most venerable suggestions for improving disk performance is to defragment your hard drive regularly. The science of defragging is sound: By putting all the bits of a file or application in sequential order on your drive, the drive should have to do less work (and spend less time) to access those files. Thus: faster performance. Well, in practice it’s not really true. Today’s hard drives are fast enough to make fragmentation largely irrelevant, and our benchmark tests have repeatedly borne this out: On moderately fragmented drives, defragmentation will offer negligible to no performance increase. For seriously fragmented drives (think 40 percent or more), especially those running XP or older OSes, defragmentation can help, but don’t expect the world. As for third-party defrag tools, there’s no real evidence that they’re any more effective than Windows’ built-in defragger.
Click Disk Defragmenter under Accessories / System Tools.
Eliminate the Recent Documents/Recent Items Folder With a Registry Hack: TRUE
For privacy reasons, many users on shared computers like to clear the Recent Documents folder or delete it altogether. Totally understandable, but there’s no need to turn to the registry to do the job. It’s all in the invaluable TweakUI (and in Vista, it’s built into the OS).
In XP: Install TweakUI and browse to the Explorer section; then uncheck “Allow Recent Documents on Start menu.”
In Vista, right-click the taskbar, click the Start Menu tab, and uncheck “Store and display a list of recently opened files.”
Turning Off The Windows Splash Screen Will Shave Time Off Your Boot: TRUE
No one seriously needs to be reminded they’re running Windows while the computer is loading the OS, right? Turning off the Windows splash screen ought to cut a little bit off of system boot time. For most systems, this generally works, but we never saw an average improvement of more than two seconds—and even less on Vista systems (probably because in lieu of the animated progress bar, you get a colorful Aurora). Still, a second is a second....
XP: At the Run prompt, type msconfig. Click the BOOT.INI tab, and select the /NOGUIBOOT option.
Very similar for Vista: Run msconfig, click the Boot tab, and select the No GUI Boot option.
Turning Off Support For 8.3 Filenames Will Improve Performance: TRUE
To maintain backward compatibility, Windows keeps an alias of every file and folder name in the old 8.3 format, even on NTFS partitions that support long filenames. The odds that you will ever need to use this format to access a file are incredibly small, so you can turn it off via a registry hack. The tip does nothing for general performance, but it can shorten the time it takes to open and display folders, though you’ll notice a difference only with extremely full folders (1,000 items or more) and usually only the first time they are opened.
Run regedit and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem. Select NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation and change the value to 1.
A Registry Hack Lets You Keep Windows From Rebooting Automatically After Installing Updates: TRUE
Another huge nuisance in Windows. There’s just nothing quite like leaving a file open overnight, then returning to your PC in the morning to find that Microsoft has helpfully restarted your machine for you, shoving all your work into digital limbo and leaving an evil calling card: “This update required an automatic restart.” It’s possible to stop auto-reboots, but it’ll take a registry hack.
Run regedit and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Polices\Microsoft\Windows. Create a new key under Windows and call it WindowsUpdate. Now create another new key under WindowsUpdate called AU. With AU selected, in the right-hand pane right-click and create a New DWORD. Call it NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers. Double-click the DWORD and give it a value of 1. Reboot, and Windows’s death grip over your system will be ended.
A Registry Hack Lets You Alphabetize The All Programs List Automatically: TRUE
One of Windows’s little eccentricities is that when you install a new application it places it in the All Programs list at the bottom, not in alphabetic order where it belongs. You can manually reorder the list by right-clicking on one of its entries and clicking Sort by Name, but you’ll need a complicated registry hack to automate things every time you install an app.
Run regedit and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. Right-click the MenuOrder key (in the left-hand pane) and select Permissions. Click Advanced. Deselect “Include inheritable permissions...” (Vista) or “Include from parent the permission...” (XP). Click Copy at the Security pop-up. Click OK. Now, back in the Permissions view, select your user name and deselect “Allow” next to Full Control in the Permissions pane at the bottom of the window. Repeat this step for any groups you are part of (Administrators, etc.). Reboot. Now when you install apps, they’ll be alphabetized automatically. Whew!
Vista Tips
Turning On Multiple Cores In Vista Improves Boot Time: FALSE
You’ll find an option within Vista’s msconfig utility that cryptically lets you set the “Number of processors” used during boot. By default it is turned off (with the drop-down set to 1). We tried upping the setting to 2 on a dual-core system and, guess what, no change in boot time whatsoever. Turns out this is just a debug setting for coders who want to test how programs load on single-core machines without having to physically go to a less-sophisticated PC. It can be completely ignored. By default Windows uses all your cores.
Superfetch Boosts Performance: TRUE
Superfetch is an update of the XP Prefetcher, designed to more intelligently load applications into RAM based on frequency of use. With Superfetch on, your PC should theoretically get faster over time, particularly when loading frequently used apps. You won’t see improvement in general performance, like rendering Photoshop files, but Superfetch does tend to make apps load 10 to 20 percent more quickly, depending on their size.
Superfetch is on by default. To ensure that it’s active, go to the Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, and select Services. Scroll down to Superfetch and ensure that it is set to “Started” and “Automatic.”
Write Caching Will Improve Performance On SATA Drives: TRUE
This feature is disabled by default in Vista because if your computer loses power before a write is completed, you can lose data. If you’re confident in your UPS’s capabilities, crank it up and you’ll see at least a 10 percent improvement in performance. Remember, write caching is supported only on SATA drives. The options are grayed out for older ATA disks.
In Explorer, right-click the drive you want to speed up and select Properties. Click the Hardware tab, select Properties again. Click the Policies tab. Check both of the boxes beneath “Optimize for performance.”
ReadyBoost Will Improve System Performance: TRUE
Yes and no. If you have a reasonably modern system, with even 1GB of RAM or more, you won’t see any performance increase from ReadyBoost, which lets you use removable flash memory to cache disk operations. In fact, with lots of RAM, we saw a slight dip in performance when using ReadyBoost. The picture is different if you’re pathetically RAM-poor: With just 512MB of RAM, app load times and general performance can be modestly improved with ReadyBoost... but why not spring for some real DIMMs instead of this half-baked setup? You shouldn’t be running Vista at all with so little RAM, nor should you be reading this magazine. 2GB of name-brand RAM will cost you less than 50 bucks; pricier than a 2GB thumb drive but oh so worth it.
If you really want to run ReadyBoost, the easiest way to turn it on is to insert your thumb drive and allow AutoPlay to run. Select “Speed up my system” from the menu. If you have AutoPlay disabled, right- click the thumb drive in the Computer view, select Properties, and choose the ReadyBoost tab. Dial ReadyBoost up to the maximum supported level of 4GB.
