Directly Integrate Google Drive With Your System

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                                            If  you  have  already  registered with Google Drive and received the 5 GB  of  free  storage  space,  then  all  your documents till date are automatically transferred over from Google Docs.


                                   

                                   The service is primarily used from the browser using the web interface. But for more comfortable use, get the online storage space directly on your local computer with “Google Drive for Windows”. This functions like Dropbox with a local folder for Google Drive, which you can then use in Explorer. The tool can be found at drive.google.com. For installation, run the MSI file by double-clicking on it in Windows Explorer.


                                   You  must  log  in  with  your  Google  account for the setup. The subsequent request for a mobile phone number can be ignored. Click on “More”, and on “Advanced setup” in the second step, which then enables you to “Change” the local folder for Google Drive.


                                   Otherwise, this folder is directly set up in your user profile. In case you want to select a folder, ensure that the folder does not overlap with other cloud services like SkyDrive. With “Start synchronisation”, you are ready to start synching your docs.

Enhance Your Desktop With Trendier Visuals

                                 
                               

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                                  The  free  tool  Rainmeter,  which you can download from www.rainmeter.net/cms, provides special skins for your desktop; you can have it display the current CPU and hard disk utilisation as well as display the time.


                                Open the website, click on the Rainmeter link and save the file “Rainmeter-2.3.3.exe” to any folder on your system. Start the installation by double-clicking on the downloaded file and follow the instructions of the installation routine. After the installation, activate Rainmeter through “Start | All programs | Rainmeter”.


                            Now if you click on a skin with the right mouse button, you will see a context menu for configuring the current skin and Rainmeter itself. To influence the skin behaviour, activate, for example, “Click-through”  in  order  to  be  able  to  click through the skin on your desktop. Now you cannot reach Rainmeter anymore and must use the relevant icon in the notification area for further changes. With the command “Rainmeter”, you can change entire themes or activate additional elements from a theme that is not up-to-date.


                         You can close the tool using “Rainmeter | End.” “Close skin” removes the  skin  from  your  desktop.  In  addition to the standard skins, you can download more skins from the internet. You can find the best upgrades at the website by clicking on “Discover”.


                       You can use the new look of Windows 8 even with Windows Vista or 7 with the skin "Omnimo for Rainmeter 5.0". For this, download the file “omnimo_5_0_for_rainmeter_by_fediafedia-d2mhn7l.zip” from the website www.omnimo.info/download.html. Unzip the ZIP file, then double-click in Windows Explorer on “SETUP.rmskin”, and then on “Install”. Follow the prompts of the setup wizard. During the course of the installation, select  a  schema  like  “Windows  Phone  7” or “Windows 8 Start Screen”.


         

             

        

      

Set A Greeting Message That Appears Before The Desktop

                                           

                                                                         

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                                                Would  you  like  to  display  a message before the desktop appears every time you boot? You can do this in almost no time with a small change in the registry.

                             Click on “Start” and enter the term “regedit” under “Search programs/files”. Windows presents the search result directly in the Start menu. Under “Programs”, click on “regedit.exe” with the right button of the mouse.

                              In the context menu, select “Run as administrator”. If required, authorise this instruction by selecting a user account with administrator rights and entering the required password.
         
                              

                               After that, in the left pane of the registry editor, navigate to the key
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System”. Now, you will see the character strings “legalnoticecaption” and “legalnoticetext” in the right section.

                               Using “legalnoticecaption”, define a title for your message, and enter the actual message text under “legalnoticetext”. After that, double click on the value names and enter your details under “Value” in the following dialogue “Edit string”. Finally, close the registry editor and restart your PC for the settings  to  take  effect.

Shut Down Your Home PC On A Schedule

                                                                                     

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                               You  tend  to  leave  your  computer alone during tasks that take a lot of time, and often the system continues to run even after completing the tasks. However, you can shut down your PC after a specified time using the command “shutdown.exe”.
                               
                              Click on “Start | All programs | Accessories | Command Prompt” with the right button of the mouse and start the command line with “Run as administrator”. Then select an account with administrator rights and enter the associated password before confirming  with  “Yes”.  Then  type  the
command “shutdown.exe -s -f -t 3600” for example, behind the prompt. Confirm this with [Enter].

                                The option “-s” causes Windows to shut down your system. Replace “-s” with “-r”, to automatically restart the system. With “-l”, Windows only logs out the current user. The option “-f” force-closes the running applications without any prior warning. Then, you require the option “-t” which helps you set the waiting time before  shutting  down,  in  seconds.  The instructions given as example affect the shutdown of the system after 3,600 seconds, i.e. one hour.

                             

                 

NOTE: Ten minutes before shutdown, Windows alerts the user via a simple dialogue. If necessary, the action can be prevented with the command “shutdown.exe -a”. 

Install Drivers Manually On Windows 8

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                                           Currently, lots of components do not have a functioning driver for Windows 8, so you have to help things along somewhat while migrating to Windows 8.

            Firstly, make sure that you've updated Windows 8  to latest version.  To know if updates are available, type 'Windows Update' o the Start screen. The search will show up a short list of options. Initiate the process with 'Search  for updates'.

            However, hardware like printers or scanners can't be used properly with Windows 8 this way. If the device is not automatically recognized, you will have to download the drivers for it. But if the manufacturer does not provide drivers for Windows 8, get hold of a driver for Windows 7 or Windows Vista and try installing that.

             When installing the driver, select 'Properties' I the context menu of the setup file and in the 'Compatibility' tab, set the compatibility mode to 'Windows 7'. If the setup itself refuses to install on Windows 8, you have one last chance: many Windows Vista and Windows 7 driver packages contain a '.inf ' file with which some hardware can function under certain circumstances. Connect this '.inf ' file with the hardware by following these steps.

• First, search for the device in the 'Device Manager'. You can identify drivers that have not been properly installed by the warning exclamatory mark in the line. You can see which hardware has not yet been recognized by Windows 8 and is not functioning.

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  Now select 'Update driver software' by right-clicking on the hardware and click 'Search for the driver software in the computer'.

• Click on the button 'Select from a list of device drivers on the computer' and then on 'More'.

• Now, select 'Data storage...Browse', navigate to the '.inf ' file in the driver folder and confirm your selection.

 Your driver may just be installed on Windows 8 and there's a good chance the hardware will work.