Change Your Boot Screen Using BootSkin

Have you ever wanted to change your boot screen in Windows to something other than the plain one that is the default? This may seem like something that will be difficult but as usual there is a program that can make this process a lot easier. The program is called BootSkin and can be downloaded from here: http://www.stardock.com/products/bootskin/downloads.asp.

First you will need to install and run BootSkin. Once you have this completed you should see a window that looks similar to the image below.

BootSkin main window

Now you can go and search for some good BootSkins that you can use with BootSkin. You can find them Here for Windows XP skins and Here for Windows Vista skins. There are tons to choose from so I am sure that you will be able to find one that will suit what you are looking for.

After you have found the one you would like to use you will need to go back to BootSkin and go to File > Import From File then you will need to navigate to where the BootSkin file is saved and then click Open. You then need to select the skin that you want to use and then click Apply.

Skin selected

Now you have your boot screen changed to what you have chosen. If you ever want to change back to the normal Windows boot screen you will just need to select Default System Boot Screen then click Apply. The boot screen that I have chosen to use can be found Here.

Changing Your Logon Screen Using LogonStudio

Have you ever wondered if you could change your logon screen so that it is not so boring and plain or wanted to make your own? There is a Free program called LogonStudio that can do this for you in a very simple manner. So lets get started on changing up the logon screen.

Once you have downloaded and installed LogonStudio you will need to start it up. It should look like something similar to the image below.

Main screen of LogonStudio

At first you only have three different logon screens to choose from but if you head on over to (http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=65&mode=1&c=1 for Windows Vista) and (http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=26 for Windows XP). From there you can download a ton of different logon screens to use in LogonStudio.

After you you have choosen the logon screen you would like to use and have it downloaded you can now load it into LogonStudio. To do this you will just need to click on Load. From there you will need to navigate to where ever the file is located and then click Open. You can now see the logon screen that you have chosen in the little preview box.

Screen shown in preview box

Now you will just need to click Apply and now your logon screen is changed to the one that you have chosen. The one that I am using is shown below and can be downloaded from here.

The finalized product of LogonStudio

Now if you cannot find the perfect logon screen on the Wincustomize site then there is an option in LogonStudio for you to create your own logon screens. All that you will need to do is click on New. After you have clicked New you will get a little prompt screen for you to name your logon screen.

Create new logon screen

Once you are done naming what your creation will be you can just click on Create. Now a window will come up so that you can start designing your own unique logon screen. It will start out as the regular Windows logon screen but you can change it to whatever you like.

LogonStudio Editor window

That is pretty much it for LogonStudio. If you ever want to change back to the regular windows logon screen all you will need to do is open up LogonStudio and then click on the Restore Default XP/Vista Logon button. Have fun with your new logon screens and also if you have any suggestions on some logons to check out post up the links in the comments. Also if you have created your own and want to share what it looks like you can post up a link to it I would love to see them.

Macs Can Be A Target Of Viruses Too

Yesterday I was browsing around on the net and went to the How-To Geek site like I do many times throughout the day and seen This article posted on the front page. I have personally always known that you can get viruses on a Mac but a lot of the users don't seem to know this because Apple says in their ads that a Mac cannot get a virus. Like this Mac vs. PC ad that I seen just the other day. I thought that it was kind of cool that I just seen the ad just the other day and now I find this article on the subject of Macs not getting viruses. Even though Mac users do not have to be too worried about getting any viruses now there is still the possibility and as long as Macs keep getting more popular the more exploits and viruses will start to turn up. So be aware of what you are loading onto your machine it doesn't matter if it is a PC, Mac or whatever else you may be using.

These are some wallpapers that have been created by The Geek over at www.howtogeek.com. Just click on the image for the full resolution copy you would like to use on your desktop.

Gaming Consoles That Will Bring Back Memories

I found this list the other day of 45 video game consoles that date back to 1970. These will surely bring back memories if you have played video games. If you don't really play video games or are younger to the scene then you may just learn some stuff too. It is a very good read I enjoyed it very much.

Magnavox Odyssey

Sending Text Messages Using Gmail

Have you ever wanted to send text messages to your friends from your computer? Well now there is a simple way to do this by just using Gmail. The only thing that you will need is a Google Account. If you don't have a Goolge Account you can get one for free from www.google.com.

After you have created your account you will need to go to Gmail. From there you will need to go to Settings which is located toward the top right corner. Once you are in the settings you will need to navigate to the Labs tab.

Settings Tabs

After you have selected the Labs tab you will need to scroll down until you see Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat you will then want to select Enable. Now you will just need to scroll down to the bottom or top and click on the Save Changes button.

Enabling texting

Now to start texting your friends all you need to do is go over to the little chat box and type in your friends phone number and save them as a contact. Now you can send text messages to their phone from the comfort of your computer and they can send messages back through their phone. Reminder: This only works for US phone numbers for now but in the future it may work for all phones.

Chat Box

Google Loosing $1.65 - 2 Million A Day On YouTube

Today I have been notified of an article that was very interesting about Google. It appears that Google is loosing a ton of money on YouTube about $1.65 -2 million a day. I have also heard rumors that YouTube may start to make some changes so that you can no longer be able to use any programs to download videos from their site and may make it so that you will have to subscribe to a monthly/yearly fees to view their content. I can see this as a possibility of happening from seeing their monitary losses.

Read more here: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=715&doc_id=175123&

Checking Your Connection Speed Using Speedtest

Have you ever wondered if your ISP is giving you the same bandwidth speed that you are paying for? There are many ways to check this but one of my favorites is www.speedtest.net. There are many other sites that can check this too but I seem to like Speedtest the most.

First you will need to navigate your browser to www.speedtest.net you will then want to choose a server that is the closest to where you are (usually the recommended one in yellow).

Speedtest showning severs

Once the scan is over you will get the results of your connection including upload and download speeds.

Speedtest results

Now you can see how fast you connection is and also see if you are getting what you are paying for. Also as a note you will get better results if your connection is idle before you use Speedtest.

Easter Eggs In Google

Since it is Easter this seemed like a fitting thing to write about. In case you were wondering Easter Eggs in Google are little things that Google has added to their search engine to keep things a bit more fun. The only hard part it is that they are not that easy to find. So with that being said I would like to share a couple that I know about.

The first one that I would like to share is one that is on the infamous Chuck Norris. All that you have to do is head on over to Google and then type Find Chuck Norris in the search box. Then hit the I'm Feeling Lucky button. What you get should be something similar to the image below.

Chuck Norris search result

The last one that I am showing is almost just as good. What you need to do for this one is type Answer to Life the Universe and Everything into the Google search box. The all you need to do is hit the Search button. You should get an answer of 42 as the answer to life the universe and everything.

Answer to life the universe and everything

Those are just the few that I know of but if you know of anymore you can post them into the comments or send them via E-mail to to me @ thegeekylife@gmail.com. Have a happy Easter and stay safe.

Installing New Fonts In Windows

Have you ever wanted to use a certain font that you thought looked pretty cool but couldn't figure out how to actually use it or where to get it? Installing fonts isn't a hard task at all. The only thing you need to know how to do is drag and drop or copy and paste (which ever you prefer to use). If you are wondering where you can download fonts there are many places to choose from but one site that I like to use is http://www.dafont.com/. That site has a huge selection so you should be able to find what ever you need there.

Once you have your font downloaded you will need to navigate to where your files are downloaded to usually the desktop is the default in most browsers. You may have to right click on the file and choose Extract because some fonts are downloaded in .zip files.

To get to the folder where you install the fonts you will want to go to Start > Control Panel. Then you will want to select Fonts. You should then be brought to a folder where all of your fonts are stored.

Fonts folder

After you have the Fonts Folder opened all you need to do is either Copy and Paste or Drag and Drop the downloaded font file into the Fonts Folder. The font will then be installed onto your machine and can be used in any program that can write and use different fonts.

Font being dragged and dropped into the Fonts Folder

Now you can install tons of new fonts onto your computer within seconds. Have fun writing notes or putting text in pictures using your favorite fonts.

Font shown in OpenOffice.org Writer

Opening Files With A Single Click

Sick of having to double-click on files to open them and wish that you could just open them with just one click? Well that is a very quick and easy setting to change in Windows. First you will want to go to Start > Control Panel. You will then want to click on Folder Options. From there a window should come up with some options you can change.

Folder Options window

Now to change the setting to Single-Click you will just need to click on the Single-Click to open an item button. After you have done that just click on Apply and now you don't have to double-click on files to open them anymore. Also since you open the files with one click now you can't select them with one click. So what you need to do is just scroll over the files to select them. To change this setting back you just need to go back to Folder Options and select the Double-Click to open button.

Single-Click To Open selected

Measuring How Far Your Mouse Moves

Have you ever wondered how far you actually move your mouse in a day? There is a small program that can measure the distance that your mouse travels and it's called Mousotron and can be downloaded from here: http://www.blacksunsoftware.com/mousotron.html.

Once you have it installed and running it should look like something similar to the image below.

Mousotron main window
(you can click on the image to see a larger view)

As with many other programs you can tweak some settings. To do this you can click on the Setup button to bring up the setup window.

Setup button

Once you are in the setup window the General tab should be selected. You can change any of these settings to what you wish to use. The only setting that I have changed was the digits from 7 to 6 so that i could see the whole window on my screen.

Setup with general tab selected

Now if you move on over to the Displayed Items tab you will be able to see all of the options that you can change. What this tab does is makes it so you can customize what items are shown on the main Mousotron window. I have left all of the items checked but you can take off the items that you don't want to view.

Displayed items tab

The two other tabs don't really change any settings they just can log your mouse distance and all of the other options you have chosen to use. You can also send out a report of your results to their website. Another cool thing about this program is that when it is minimized it will the go into the system tray it can still log things and stay out of your working space when it's not needed.

Mousotron in the system tray

Well those are the main uses of this program. There really isn't a huge need to know how far you move your mouse in a day but it can be a fun task to just see how far you actually do move your mouse on a daily basis. So now go out and have fun logging your mouse distance with Mousotron.

You can also join in on the fun over at http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/measuring-mouse-distance-traveled?replies=33.

Taking Screenshots Of Whole Web Pages

Have you ever wondered how you can take a screenshot of a web page but not want to have to piece together a couple different pieces? Well using Firefox there is a simple way of doing this by just using an add-on called Screengrab. You can download this add-on from: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146. Once you have installed Screengrab it is very easy to take screenshots of entire web pages.

First you will need to have Firefox open, then you just have to right click anywhere on the page then you need to go down to where it says Screengrab or you can click on the little Screengrab icon in the bottom right hand corner. From here you have two different options to choose from. You can either choose to save the screenshot as a picture file or you can choose to copy the screenshot to the clipboard.

Two Screengrab options: Save or Copy

To save the web page as a file you will need to select save. You will then have a couple more options to choose from: Complete Page/Frame, Visible Portion, Selection, and Window. For this article I am going to use Complete Page/Frame.

Saving complete page

After you have selected which ever option you wish to use you will then get a window asking where you want to have your image saved to. Once you have the location selected and the name for the file chosen you will then need to click Save and then you are done.

Saving screenshot

Now to copy the page is the same method as saving except to use the image you will first need to paste it into some where of your choosing. That is about it for using this handy little add-on for Firefox. Have fun taking screenshots of all of your favorite web pages in just a few clicks with Screengrab.


Original article can be found here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/internet/firefox/create-screenshot-image-of-entire-web-page-in-firefox/