Change the Guest Account Name in Windows 7 for Better Security

Windows 7 features a guest account that can make it easy for friends and housemates to quickly check their email or the web on your system. Giving it a different name, however, makes it a bit more secure.

We're not talking totally, hacker-proof, locked-down secure, here—but giving the Guest Account a different name makes it just a little harder for those trying to guess username/password combinations to your computer, remotely or through malicious software. When Guest Account is just "Guest Account," in other words, it's an easy way in for anyone, or any software, that knows that account exists.
At the How-To Geek's home away from Lifehacker, writer Mysticgeek runs down the process for changing the Guest Account name in Windows 7, which requires a little switch and name change by an administrator. Want to pull off the same kind of trick in Windows Vista? Try DotNet Wizard's guide.

Rename the Guest Account in Windows 7 for Enhanced Security [the How-To Geek]

Google Now Personalizes Logged-Out Searches

Google has long had the ability to track a user's web history and offer personalized results, based on how often you search for, and click on, certain results. CNET's Webware points out that Google has also started customizing results on browsers that aren't logged into a Google account as well, done through an anonymous browser cookie. You can turn it off, but it's worth keeping in mind that, if you're seeing the same kinds of results get higher ranking, it's probably because Google thinks your computer wants that kind of thing

Use Your PSP as a Wi-Fi Scanner

While having a netbook slightly decreased the hassle of whipping out your laptop to check for wireless nodes, it's still a pain. If you keep your PSP in your gadget bag, put it to work as a Wi-Fi scanner. If you live in a city you're surrounded by free wireless nearly everywhere you go, the key is knowing what's available and open for use. Much easier than stopping every hundred feet and busting out your laptop is using your tiny PSP as a scanner. At MakeUseOf they cover two techniques for using your PSP to sniff out Wi-Fi locations. The first can be done with a stock PSP. You simply go into the network settings on the PSP and tell it to look for new wireless networks. That will work, but it won't look continuously just when you ask it to.
If you've set up your PSP to run homebrew software you have access to a superior option. Road Dog scans continuously, shows you the strength of the signal, and can even be set to alert mode where it will notify you on new finds even when you're not paying attention to the scanner. You don't need to write down the spots it finds, just press the NOTE button on the PSP and it'll save the information of the network you're looking at for later use.

Fix Common Windows Problems with a Click

Is your computer unable to recognize the CD or DVD drive? Has the recycle bin suddenly disappeared from your desktop? Are you unable to start programs like the Registry editor or the task manager when you yourself are the owner of the computer but unfortunately not the administrator?
These are some common issues faced by Windows users and luckily, the solutions to most of these tiny but annoying programs are hidden inside the Windows registry and can be found with a simple “google search”.

Fix Windows’ Problems without opening the Registry Editor

However, if you don’t like to fiddle directly with the registry and need something more simple, check out Fixwin.
This is a free utility for Windows that, as the name suggests, can repair a few dozen Windows annoyances and problems with a single click. It works on both 32-bit and 64-bit version of Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Fixwin weighs less than a MB and it requires no installation so you can carry it on a USB drive. The program archive is available in RAR format so you may have to use either 7-zip or Winzip to extract the utility.
So the next time you get a “tech-support” call from a friend because he’s unable to change the homepage of his Internet Explorer browser, you exactly know where to point him to. Thanks Abhishek.

 

Build a Wireless Home Network without a Router

Let’s say you have one internet connection at home that you want to share across all your desktop and laptop computers, your Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, media players (like the iPod Touch), video game consoles (like the Xbox), digital photo frames and any other wireless devices that you may have at home.
How do you do this?
The easiest way to setup a wireless network, as we all know, is with the help of a router -- just attach a wireless router to your modem and any Wi-Fi enabled gear, that’s located inside the signal range of your router, will be able to connect to the web using that lone Internet connection.

Setup Wireless Network without a Wireless Router

Now consider a slightly different scenario -- you have all these Wi-Fi enabled devices at home but there’s no router. Well, there’s no reason to buy one because you can still easily setup a wireless network as long as your computers have a wireless network adapter*.

[*] Most new desktops and laptop computers are already equipped with internal network adapters so you are ready to go without a router.
If your computer doesn’t have built-in wireless capabilities, you can either buy a USB network adapter that plugs into the USB port of your desktop or go for a wireless adapter that directly plugs into your notebook’s PC Card slot. Desktop users can also opt for an internal wireless PCI card but you’ll have to open the computer case in order to install this network adapter.

Hide your Email Address with the help of Facebook

You probably know that Facebook uses an image format to display email addresses on profile pages.
While most people use this technique to protect their email addresses from spam bots, Facebook converts addresses into images for a completely different reason. They want to prevent their own users from exporting email addresses of their own friends out of the Facebook wall (through scrapping).
Use Facebook-generated Email Images outside Facebook
If you right-click and copy the web address of any email image inside Facebook, the URL would be something like this:
http://facebook.com/string_image.php?ct=ABCD1234&fp=8.7
where ABCD1234 is a unique string that is different for every email address and 8.7 is the font size that is used while rendering the image.
What’s interesting here is Facebook doesn’t require authentication for these URLs.
That means you can directly mention these image addresses in your Twitter messages, in online forums or any other public web pages where you are worried about mentioning your email address in plain text as spam bots might harvest them for the purpose of spamming you.
So the next time someone wants my email address on Twitter, I can point him to this Facebook URL – http://bit.ly/my-email. If I want to embed this email address images on a web page, the code would be:

You can vary the font sizes by changing the value of the fp parameter in the URL as I have done in the following examples – these are all dynamically generated images.

AeroWorks Reskins Your Windows 7 Taskbar Without Patching

Windows: If you want to mess around with reskinning your Windows 7 or Vista taskbar without having to muck around with patches, AeroWorks is a no-fuss method for skinning the taskbar without modification to your system.

AeroWorks swaps out the taskbar background and special effects with those of the seven included skins. You can combine your own images and special effects by clicking on the Choose Base and Choose FX buttons in the upper right hand corner.
It doesn't patch or modify your system beyond changing the appearance of the taskbar while the application is running. If you don't like the changes you can undo them within the program and try a new skin or simply close the application to revert the taskbar to its default state.

AeroWorks [via Download Squad]

[brainw4re]