PC Hints and Tips

You can use special codes in MySpace to make your profile look really cool. Everyone will wonder how you did it. Go to edit your profile and, in your About Me box, try these codes (including the semi-colon): † ♥ ♠ ← → ® ¼ ½ ©. There are many more and there’s a list at http://xurl.jp/q5o

Not everybody finds the Windows key useful. If you keep hitting it by accident and getting pop-up menus, boxes and actions when you don’t want them, you can disable it. It’s a Registry hack but it’s not difficult to carry out.

Click Start in Vista or Start, Run in XP and enter ‘regedit’ (without the quotes) to start the Registry Editor. Find the following folder on the left: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrenctVersion\Policies\Explorer. Right-click the empty space on the right and select New, ‘DWORD value’. Enter NoWinKeys, double-click it and enter 1 for the value. Quit the Registry Editor and restart Windows for it to take effect. If you ever want your Windows key back again, return to the value you created in the Registry, right-click it and select Delete.

The Windows Error-Checking tool (Chkdsk) can identify and fix potential problems with your hard disk. Run it every few weeks or once a month if everything seems to be performing fine. It’s also worth running Chkdsk straight after every crash or hard-disk reset.

To access the tool, open My Computer (Computer in Vista), right-click your system drive and select Properties. Go to the Tools tab, click the Check Now button and add ticks to ‘Automatically fix file system errors’ and ‘Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.’ You’ll probably have to restart Windows before Chkdsk can begin checking the drive.