ZeroHacks

Sometimes you will not be able to find out the Menu Bar, Title, Close button, Maximize button and Tabs like Applications, Processes, Services, Performance, Networking, Users etc in the Task Bar.

The Task Manager behaves in such a way because it runs in what Microsoft Windows describes as Tiny Footprint mode.

Task Manger with Menu Bar & Close Button

Task Manager with No Menu, No Tabs, No Control Buttons

How the Strip occurs?

If you have accidentally Double Click anywhere in the empty Tab areas Task Manager will switch to Tiny Footprint mode.

You can close this ONLY by:

1. ALT+F4 OR

2.If you are in the Processes Tab and taskmgr.exe is visible kill that by using Endprocess.

Even if you kill the Task Manager or Restart it, it will come in the same ‘useless’ state again and again until you rever it back to Normal Mode.

Solution 1: Double click once again in the empty tab areas (Grey area surrounding the list) to show all tabs, title bar etc.

Solution 2: (If you want to kill some time )

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type taskmgr.exe
3. Hold down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT at the same time, and while holding them down press OK or ENTER.

If you are a ‘Mouse Hate’ and always love to access the applications by using keyboard you will soon find that there are many applications you cannot start by typing their name in Run. For example you cannot start Chrome browser by typing Chrome or Chrome.exe.

By a simple registry hack, you can enable ANY application to be started from Run.

1.Windows Start > Run > Type regedit. This will open the Registry editor.

2. Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths

3.Right click on App Paths and select New Key

4. Enter the desired name for the application. (You will use type this name in the Run dialog box to start the application)

5. Now on the right hand side under Name and Type you will find a Default key. Right click on Default and select Modify…

6. In the Edit String dialog box paste the full path to the application. [Tip: You can get the full path to the application by right clicking on the icon if available in the desktop and then select properties or find it from the location you have installed.]

Something like

C:\Users\<Your User>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe

7. Now type Chrome or Chrome.exe or any file name you have given to start from Run.

Microsoft have reinvigorated it’s search and now Bing is out in the open for all. The Usage is interactive with text snap to get a quick preview of results.

Watch parts of even paid content or inaccessible videos through Bing

Bing list all videos as moving thumbnails with sound. This means you will be able to watch even restricted shows and paid content videos as thumbnails. Remember these are only excerpts NOT full videos. (Sometimes certainly worth it )


Bing is available on Mobile too

Access bing mobile via http://m.bing.com. Works as fine as Desktop version and better than Google and Yahoo’s mobile interface.


For More options change Location

Use http://www.bing.com/worldwide.aspx to choose your region. US, UK regions have more options and more unfiltered content.

Search files inside Pages

Use the contains keyword to search for specific files like gif, avi, mp3, divx etc inside the pages. This is unlike suffixing search term with ext:ppt in Google.

Example:

To find PPTs related to hedging

Bing: hedging contains: ppt –> The page will contain links to PPTs

Google: hedging ext:ppt  –>PPTs which contains the word ‘hedging’

More search services

Currently the following services are active:

Health

+ –>Contains inline articles from medical experts

Images

++ –>You can scroll infinitely to find related images on the web. This is really a GREAT feature. It will save pressing “Next” several times like in Google which is now seem a tiring effort.

+ –>Facial search features

+ –>Black and white search

+ –>Photo or Illustration

++–>open an image in a new window/Tab you don’t have to come back to the other images as they are listed in the left side scroll bar.

+ All the options easily accessible unlike in Advances options in other search engines.

Local

http://www.bing.com/local

Maps

http://www.bing.com/maps

+ –>Bird’s eye view for cities

+ –>Virtual 3D

News

http://www.bing.com/news

Shopping

http://www.bing.com/shopping

+–> Bing cashback offering money back for certain purchases made through the site.

Translator

http://www.bing.com/translator

Translate texts or entire web pages

Travel

http://www.bing.com/travel

+–> Best buy suggestions, looks promising.

Videos

http://www.bing.com/videos

++–> The Smart Preview to instantly watch a short preview of an original video.

xRank

http://www.bing.com/xrank

Search ranks for celebrities, musicians

More about Bing @ : http://www.discoverbing.com/

Bing Tidbits

1. Bing has taken over second position at over 15% of search traffic (Source: StatCounter) and this may be due to new interest in a new product and initial hype.
2. Microsoft has set aside $100 million to promote Bing
3. As usual Bing has been already banned in China. Ironically “Bing” is an easily memorable name for Chinese.
4. Your IP address will remain in Microsoft’s log of your search for the next 18 months. For Google- 9 months, and Yahoo 90 days.
5. The search still points to Live search help L
6. Search Linux on Bing is not so OK.

Million Dollar Question

In one thing Bing may not be able to compete Google I think. Guess what -duration of Beta status.

Bing is not Google but this time it is neither like ‘Microsoft’ and is certainly on the upward trend.