Add Custom User Extensions

In Notepad++ navigate to Settings > Style Configurator…

Choose a language on the left side that you want your own extension to match (i.e. if I want .config files to style like XML then I’d choose XML). In the User ext. field near the bottom, enter in your custom user extension without the dot in front of it (e.g. config for *.config files). Now restart Notepad++ and it will map that new extension to the style you’ve chosen.

net user administrator /active:yes

If you ever feel the need to remove the Administrator account from the login screen, just run this command:

net user administrator /active:no

Directory Listing Filters

The key to fixing this issue is to go to View > Filename filters…

Just check the CVS and SVN directories option and FileZilla will no longer display those.

Do yourself a favor and immediately download a copy of free TeraCopy. Get yourself the portable verison so you have this time saver anywhere you go. TeraCopy will move or copy files for you but at a much faster rate than Windows Explorer and it has many other additional features. TeraCopy integrates into the Explorer shell and even has a pause/resume copying feature.

Drag and Drop files to Copy

Choose a Destinaion Location

That’s all there is to it — TeraCopy will copy the files to your destination and show a progress meter.

This is a common problem I have with the sort order of my music folder. Sometimes I like the music to be sorted alphabetically (default); but sometimes I like to see the newest music and sort by Date modified. Unfortunately, just about every time I un-mount and re-mount my hard drive, my custom sort its gone. This is easily fixed by a simple little registry trick, so roll up your sleeves and open regedit (Start > Run > “regedit”).

Update the Registry

Once you’re in the Registry Editor navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

Right-click on the right panel and choose New > DWORD Value

Give the new value the name BagMRU Size

Hit enter to save the name then double-click it and choose the Base as Decimal set the value to 10000.

Easy: Change Icon Size On-The-Fly

To change your icon size, go to the Desktop, hold down Ctrl and scroll your mouse middle scroller up or down. This will increase and decrease the icon sizes respectively:

Ctrl +

Hard: The Tedious Method in Vista

The other way to change the icon size is a bit harder. In Vista: Right-click the Desktop > Personalize > Windows Color and Appearance > Open classic appearance properties for more color options > Avanced… > under Item choose Icon. Now adjust the size property. Isn’t that tedious?

Download FREE ZoneAlarm Pro 2009

There are two methods to get around this problem:

1. Turn UAC Off

Go to Start > Control Panel. In the top right search box, enter UAC. The search will return 1 result which will let you toggle UAC on or off. Click on the result and uncheck Use UAC… This will require a reboot, but it will save you time in the future.

2. Copy, then overwrite the HOSTS file

Navigate to the etc folder located @ c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\. Copy the HOSTS file to your Desktop and edit it accordingly. Make sure it’s named hosts, not hosts – Copy. Drag it into the etc folder and when you’re asked to overwrite the existing file, say yes.

1. Download & Install WampServer 2

First, download Wamp. Now install; a good spot is c:\wamp.

2. Configure Apache to run on an alternate port

By default, a web server runs on port 80. If you’re running IIS, it’s probably running on port 80 and Apache tries to as well. Let’s change it so Apache runs on port 8080.

You’ll see the icon for WAMP is yellow (), meaning not all services are running. That’s because Apache is trying to use port 80, but it’s conflicting with IIS. Click on the WAMP icon and go to Apache > httpd.conf

Scroll down and change Listen 80 to Listen 8080. Scroll down even further and change ServerName localhost:80 to ServerName localhost:8080. Those two changes will tell Apache to use port 8080. To restart WAMP, click the WAMP icon and choose Restart All Services. The icon should now look like

That’s all you really need to get things started. Don’t forget to restart the services every time you change the httpd.conf file.

3. Additional Customizations

Make your websites visible to others

To allow other people on your network to see your sites running on Apache, all you need to do is it clikc the WAMP icon in the systray and click Put Online. It will restart the services and make your sites visible to others. This setting is necessary if you’re on an actual live server environment.

Run multiple sites using different ports

It’s possible to run multiple sites in Apache, you just need to dish out different ports to access them. Below are two blocks of config lines necessary to make two websites run on different ports:


NameVirtualHost *:8080
<VirtualHost *:8080>
ServerName localhost
DocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/site1/"
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/site1/">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>



NameVirtualHost *:8081
<VirtualHost *:8081>
ServerName localhost
DocumentRoot "C:/wamp/www/site2/"
<Directory "C:/wamp/www/site2/">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>


And that’s about it. Do you have any more tips? Leave them in the comments.