I’ve decided to post a tutorial on how to set up a Self Hosted WordPress Blog locally on your Windows machine using the WAMP Server. The reason for this tutorial is ultimately to help enable you to carry out important testing on your WordPress Blog in an offline format. Why should you set up a local server? Well, think about this….How many times are you prompted for updates on WordPress? Maybe there are new Plug-ins you need to install? But what if that plug-in completely destroys your WordPress installation? What then!?

This is why it’s so important to install your WordPress website or blog locally on your computer so you can test, test, test as much as you can so you can prevent errors from occurring or even worse damage your online WordPress installation!

You might think that this is going to be a daunting task – setting up a server on your own computer -  but let me tell you, it’s not, seriously! If I can do it, so can you! Firstly, I guess I will start off by telling you that you need to follow these instructions carefully otherwise you may run into problems but you know that already don’t you! : ) Right, lets get started shall we? Deep breaths!

Instructions: Step 1:

WAMP – What is it and where can I get it? Good question! WAMP stands for Windows Apache MySQL PHP – these individual programs all come together to make up a WAMP Server. Without these individual programs we wouldn’t be able to continue. So, firstly you will need to download WAMP and you can do that by following the link below. This is a free open source program just so you know! ; )

WAMP Server Screenshot 1

WAMP Download URL: http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php (this link will open in a new window)

You can download these programs individually of course and in some cases it is recommended but personally I do prefer having them all in one location especially for this task as it’s just so easy to use and handy to access them.

Step 2:

So, now that you’ve downloaded WAMP you will now need to install the program on your computer. Simply follow the onscreen instructions throughout the installation. The only option you need to remember here is your installation directory which should ideally be c:wamp – You will need to keep a note of this directory location as this is where your new local server is going to be located.

You may also be prompted for your PHP Mail parameters – I wouldn’t be too concerned about this for now unless you wish to but otherwise simply choose the default settings SMTP = localhost and Email = you@yourdomain – Once you have followed all the installation instructions simply tick the box to Launch WAMP on the last installation prompt screen and WAMP will finish the installation and then launch the application.

What you’re looking out for here is going to be located on the bottom left hand side of your screen where your time, calender, audio icons etc are located in your notification area as shown below. (Let’s assume we all have the same set up – I’m on Vista right now so I’m going with this format)

WAMP Screenshot 2 – Notification Bar

Step 3:

Ok, great…. you now see the icon therefore we have a successful installation! Congratulations! Our next move is to have a look at the WAMP Server menu in more detail so we will have a better understanding of what this program can actually do for us! We’ll have a look at each individual menu option and then we’ll get started below:

Localhost

Localhost is where your website is going to be located. For example: C:wamp/www/wordpress/index.php – You can access your local server’s homepage by clicking this option or alternatively by typing localhost in your browser or by using the following IP 127.0.0.1

phpMyAdmin

This will launch your phpMyAdmin program – This is where you can create, edit, delete, manage, import all your databases for WordPress etc. You can use this option to access phpMyAdmin or alternatively by pointing your web browser to the following address: http://localhost/phpmyadmin/

www directory

This www directory is quite simply where all your files are located for your website or blog. By clicking this menu option you will have all the contents of your local server directory displayed on screen which is quite handy when you want to find things fast!

Apache

Pretty self explanatory – This is where you can access the Apache Configuration and edit as required. For this instance we will not be editing any settings here.

PHP

Same as above with Apache – You can access PHP here and edit if you wish but again, we won’t need to mess around in this section!

MySQL

Basically this is where you can access MySQL settings but there’s no need to edit anything in this section unless you have a specific requirement.

QuickAdmin Section

Start All Services – Stop All Services – Restart All Services

This section allows you to start, stop and restart all of the above items. Use this section only if you need to.

Put Online

Use this option to put your local server “online” meaning that if you don’t put your local server in online mode then you won’t be able to access your localhost or WordPress blog on your computer. So a good rule of thumb is when you do launch WAMP ensure that your services are online by checking your notification bar icon - If you see the option Put Offline you’re good to go, otherwise select Put Online.

Step 4:

Ok, so now we’ve covered most of the basics we’re ready to actually get started with our local server. Assuming you have followed the advice above your local server should be “Online” – So, firstly what I want you to do is open up your www directory – this will be c:/wamp/www or simply choose www directoy from your WAMP menu in your notification area as displayed below.

Screenshot 3 – Open your www directory

Step 5:

Ok, so we have our www directory open, this is where we will put our WordPress installation or any other website you choose to host on your own local server. Personally, I have created a WordPress directory just so I know where I am and what’s what! So feel free to create a directory of choice and just put your WordPress installation into that folder. For websites that are already live and on the web you can simply copy your “online” directory folder via your FTP client such as Filezilla and you can simply download that directory straight into your www directory folder, easy peasy! For a quick preview of what’s in your www directory you can point your browser to: http://localhost/ or just choose Localhost from your WAMP Server menu in your notification area.

Step 6:

For this step we’re going to get stuck into the MySQL database which will be located in your phpMyAdmin section. You will need to have a database set up locally in order for your localhost to work with WordPress. Even if you never used MySQL before don’t worry, I’ll show you where to start and guide you along the way! So, let’s get started. Please go to your WAMP Server menu in your notification area and click the option phpMyAdmin or alternatively point your browser to the following location: http://localhost/phpmyadmin/

Screenshot 4 – Open phpMyAdmin

Step 7:

Once we choose the option above, our browser will load phpMyAdmin. Here you will create your database for your WordPress installation or if you do have a website that is already live and on the web, you can simply import your database from your self-hosted blog. So, firstly what we can see here is our phpMyAdmin – it sort of looks like a Dashboard on WordPress and it’ll give us an overview of MySQL if you like. What I want you to do now is to click the tab on the top where it says Databases as shown below.

Screenshot 5 – MySQL Database Tab

Step 8:

Next, I want you to create a new database – let’s call it wpblog – Enter in this name and click create database as shown below.

Screenshot 6 – MySQL – Create a new database

Step 9:

Now, we should see the following screen that’ll show us that our database was successfully created. When you’re installing your WordPress installation please note that your database name will now be “wpblog” and your host is localhost – for the user field please use the default or “root” and leave the password field empty. You can set up users for your blog post installation. If this were an online installation you would have to create a new user and password in addition to assigning privileges but you need not worry yourself about that for this installation as we are offline and on our own local server.

Screenshot 7 – MySQL – Database Created Successfully

Step 10:

If you do happen to have a WordPress blog already live and on the web simply log into your MySQL database online and export your tables for downloading. Choose Import in your local phpMyAdmin as shown below to transfer your current “online database” to your local server.

Screenshot 8 – MySQL – Import Database to local server

Step 11:

So, considering you have your database all set up and everything has been installed without problem, the next step is pointing your browser in the right place. Say you did create a WordPress directory, as suggested above, your local server url will be as follows:

Your Local Server (localhost) WordPress Dashboard:
http://localhost/www/wordpress/wp-admin/index.php

Your Local Server (localhost) WordPress Blog or Website:
http://localhost/www/wordpress/

So that’s it really in a nutshell! You’re all ready to get started with your offline blog! Quite easy really wasn’t it? There are a lot more things you can do with the WAMP Server program but just to get you started this is a really easy way to set up your own local server fast.  Now you can have peace of mind when you do update or decided to play around with new layouts, designs, plug-ins etc! You don’t have to worry about ruining your installation as everything is offline and in “testing mode”. I find it extremely easy to update WordPress itself in offline mode then export back to my online version instead of having to do a manual update of WordPress in an online format. But you’ll find your own happy medium soon enough and most importantly just have fun with it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it to be useful : )

For those of you who love using the FireFox Personas Extension for Mozilla Firefox you may have wondered why they have stopped working for you! Recently when I visited the Firefox Personas page I noticed that when I hovered over the images they just didn’t preview “live” in real time as they should do!

It took me a while to figure out that it was only a simple little mistake on my part but this oversight was attributed by my latest update of the Firefox Browser! So I guess not my fault extirely! Phew!

So, with this in mind I figured that if I had this problem some of you may also be pulling your hair out wondering what went wrong with your own Personas! So to save time and well…prevent you from going bald – just follow the simple instructions below and you’ll be back in business in no time!

Step 1.

On your FireFox browser please select the following from your Toolbar….Please Select: Tools -> Option

Screenshot 1.

Step 2.

You will now be displayed with an Options dialog box. Please select the Security Tab as show below and tick the box that says “Warn me when sites try to install add-ons”

Screenshot 2.

Step 3.

You will also notice that there is a button that says Exceptions – Please click this button. Next you see a dialog box prompting you for a site URL, simply enter in the following addresses addons.mozilla.org and getpersonas.com (if you wish) so that Firefox will recognise this URL and keep it white-listed for you. Simply click close then OK once you’ve added this new rule and you should be able to view the FireFox personas when you hover over them from now on!

Screenshot 3.

If you do notice that you still can’t view the Firefox Personas in live mode, simply clear your cache/history and restart Firefox.

So you have a blog, know the basics but want to go that step further and interact with your visitors?! Maybe you want to receive an ocassional email from your visitors? What if I said to you that you can create a really really easy Contact Form on your WordPress blog without knowing any coding whatsoever?! What’s the catch? There is none! All you have to do is follow these handy instructions below and you can be up and running in no time!

Please note: For those of you who are more old school like myself and enjoy the hours of code crunching into the wee hours of the morning – this tutorial is designed for those of you who simply don’t have the time to invest or set aside to write out the code – it’s a quick fix if you like, so I hope you enjoy it! Anything that makes our lives easier right?!

OK, let’s get started… So, I’m going to show you how you can set up an interactive Contact Form on your WordPress blog in 4 easy steps! Enjoy it!

Step 1: Assuming you do have a WordPress blog and know a little bit about WordPress Plug-ins – I’m going to introduce you to the wonderful world of Clean Contact! This is a simple no nonsense Contact Form for WordPress from http://www.checkfront.com. It has everything you need, that is…enables your website/blog visitors to send email to you via a Contact Form on your blog. Ok, with all introductory formalities aside we’ll just get right to it and off you go to download this plug-in! Please do have a read about this plug-in as there are many neat features on offer such as spam prevention, multiple recipients and it’s fully customisable! Did I mention it’s also free?! Donate to the author though if you do find this plug-in to be useful, it pays to be nice in this world! : – )

Clean-Contact Form – Download this plug-in (opens in a new window)

Step 2: Once your download is complete and you have scanned your plug-in with your favourite anti-virus software, simply upload this plug-in to your plug-in directory in WordPress which will usually be the following:  /wp-content/plugins

Step 3: So now all you have to do is enable your plug-in on your Dashboard and wander on down to your Clean-Contact settings which will be located under your Plug-ins menu on the left hand side of your Dashboard page as shown below.

Locate Clean-Contact – Snapshot

Here we will see an array of options to choose from to help us configure our Contact Form. For a typical configuration – simply enter in your email address, a short thank you message to notify the recipient that the email has been sent to you and of course tick the filter spam checkbox!

Configuration Settings Snapshot – Click for larger view

If you don’t have the Askimet Plugin you can download it here below – you will really need this to ensure that all the spammy comments will be captured and you can spend your precious time reading emails that are actually worthwhile.

Askimet Plugin - Download this plug-in (opens in a new window)

Step 4: So, that’s pretty much it for the configuration of your Contact Form, now all you need to do is specify where you wish to include your Contact Form using the follow shortcode:

Clean-Contact ShortCode – Snapshot

You can create a dedicated Contact page or alternatively you can include it on any page or indeed on your sidebar, within posts etc the possibilities are endless!  I hope you found this tutorial easy to follow and hopefully it might save you some time and effort! Thanks for reading! : – )

I’m feeling quite arty today so I’ve decided to create a post about Background Colors and how you can give your WebPages a colorful face-lift!

We will discuss two ways of using background color on your WebPages – one using HTML and another using CSS.

You may choose whichever form suits your web coding style but we will cover both, just to give you some choices!  We will start off with the HTML Format and then progress onwards to the CSS style.

HTML Format – Background Color

If you wish to include a background color to your WebPages you will always put your WebPage background color within your <body> tag. The <body> is where all our content and data is contained so therefore it makes sense to include our background color tag here. The background color tag is as follows: bgcolor=“black” or for the hex code bgcolor=“#000000”   Now, for our complete code see below:

HTML Background Color Code:

<body bgcolor=“black”> or <body bgcolor=“#000000”>

Always hit save on your notepad or WYSIWYG Editor to apply your changes to your WebPages. This is quite simply it! It’s easy isn’t it?! You can play around and try out a few colors that will suit your style and personality.

CSS Format – Background Color

Now, for those of you more advanced to web design, we will discuss the CSS format which you should eventually progress to once you manage the basics of Web Design. Assuming (with good practice) you already have an external CSS file in place, simply add the following standardised code:

CSS Background Color Code:

body {

background: “#000000”;

}

Always save changes to your CSS file and viola, we have color! Using color on your WebPages will not only make them more enticing to visitors but also give you the opportunity to test drive your design skills. Play around with colors that work for your design layouts, your content, your brand – sometimes a simple background color can make a major difference to how your website is perceived and also makes it more engaging for your visitors.  Have fun!

Sidenote: If you haven’t explored CSS yet, don’t worry – I intend on carrying out a complete CSS Tutorial Series. There are so many wonderful, cool and amazing things you can do with CSS, once you master this beautiful code you’ll always wonder what you ever did without it! I know I do!  So stay tuned for those!  : -)

Today we’re going to go back to basics. This tutorial is ultimately aimed at newbie web designers/developers but hopefully it may be a nice refresher for others. I’m going to talk about HTML Lists today, what you can do with them and how you can incorporate them into your webpages. We will start off simply by describing what HTML lists are and discuss when you should use them.

HTML Lists are very useful when it comes to the sorting and organisation of content on your webpages. HTML Lists come in three forms and they are as follows:

• Unordered Lists
• Ordered Lists
• Definition Lists

There are no set rules as to what list you should and shouldn’t use, it’s primarily down to your own personal preference and what suits your layout or design needs. Let’s take a more closer look at each of these HTML Lists in more detail. We will start off with Unordered Lists.

Unordered Lists

Unordered Lists create a bulleted style affect to your content and/or text. They start off with an opening <ul> tag and also end with a closing </ul> tag.   These tags represent the start and end of the “Unordered List Tag”.  Between these tags we will call upon our definition list tag which will represent our content, so we have an opening <li> and of course, as with all good mark-up, we will have a complimenting closing tag </li>

Example of an Unordered List

Code:

<ul>
<li>Web Design</li>
<li>Photography</li>
</ul>

Live Example:

• Web Design
• Photography

Example Variation: Simply include <ul type=“circle”> or <ul type=“square”> in replace of the <ol> tag for circle or square.

ο  Web Design
ο  Photography
ο  Photoshop
ο  Programming

■  Web Design
■  Photography
■  Photoshop
■  Programming

Ordered Lists

Ordered Lists come in quite handy when you want to sort content in a numerical fashion. Say you had a certain set of rules to follow and you wanted your reader/visitor to follow a certain numerical path say, 1, 2, 3 – Well the Ordered List option will do just that for you and saves you time typing out all those nasty numbers! So, as with the above format, we will have a new opening tag for our Ordered List and that is as follows <ol> and of course our ending tag </ol> Between these “Ordered List Tags” we will have the same rule as above the <li> and </li> tags come into play.

Example of an Ordered List

Code:

<ol>
<li>Web Design</li>
<li>Photography</li>
</ol>

Live Example:

1.  Web Design
2.  Photography

Definition Lists

Definition Lists go to the next level in terms of content layout and organisation. Definition Lists displays your content and also a description of that content which will compliment and represent each item. You will start off with the “Definition Lists tags” <dl> and </dl> Next up ,you will have your content definition tags which are <dt> and </dt> these will define your content.  Within those tags you will then place your description item tag <dd> and </dd> I know this may seem a bit complicated but if you look at the example below it will become much clearer. These definition lists can be a great time saver when it comes to sorting out a lot of data in a strict manner.

Example of a Definition List

Code:

<dl>
<dt>Web Design</dt>
<dd>- Tutorial 1</dd>
<dt>Photography</dt>
<dd>- My Album</dd>
</dl>

Live Example:

Web Design

- Tutorial 1

Photography

- My Album

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial – You can have lots of fun with HTML Lists and they can come in really handy when it comes to organising content on a webpage! All comments are welcome!  : -)

Recently I found myself with a dilemma. I noticed that my RSS Feed was not displaying my images! Eek! This was a big upset to me because as this is a tutorial website I need images to guide my readers (you guys) through the step-by-step tutorials! As with all blog readers, preferences will vary but a few of my readers have chosen to receive my posts via the RSS Feed. So naturally the onus and responsibility to my readers is on my shoulders! So, first and foremost, let me take this opportunity to offer sincere apologies that the images have not been displaying recently – the problem is now rectified! : -) Phew!

As with all good webmasters you need to carry out operational/system checks all across your website to ensure everything is working to plan. This is when I stumbled across my issue! Just when I was testing my RSS Feed to my horror I noticed that my images were not working. I consulted with a couple of buddies to test out my RSS Feed just to make sure it wasn’t something wrong with my side of things. But of course, no one could see them. Oh no! So immediately, I was on the case.

If you’re using WordPress this might rescue you from pulling your hair out trying to figure out why you’re images aren’t displaying either! WordPress is quite finicky when it comes to images and also relaying them to FeedBurner so it seems. The problem with my images was not something associated with my settings on WordPress but merely the path to my images. Feedburner could not ascertain what the full path to my images was because I did not use Absolute Paths within my posts! Annoying? Yes!

An example of an Absolute Path:

http://wwww.hazelstutorials.com/images/folder/file.jpg

In my instance I was merely using a Relative Path:

/images/folder/file.jpg

Even though my images were displaying within my posts onsite, Feedburner had a difficult time trying to find them! So the solution is to use Absolute Paths at all times to ensure that your images display properly in your RSS Feed – permanently.  I know I love using Relative Paths but for the sake of my readers, they come first – so please do check your path to your WordPress images at all times to ensure that your readers do have the full benefit of all your content and in turn everyone is happy!

I hope this will help those of you who may have problems displaying images within your RSS Feeds!  : -)

Continuing on with our series on the Windows Registry, I am going to talk about how to take back control of your Operating System via the boot/start-up process. Have you ever noticed that over time your computer tends to boot up slower and slower these days? This may be attributed by so many programs that wish to start-up automatically when you load into your Windows Operating System. Pesky little brats!

Fear not though! You can take back that control in a very simple process. Today, I’m going to show you how you can significantly improve your system start-up process by removing all those unwanted programs from your Windows Registry.

First things first – We’re going to backup our Windows Registry – If you don’t remember how to – take a quick recap in our last tutorial – click here to view – this will open in a new window for you, for your convenience.

So, once we have backed up our Registry it’s now time to take out our “virtual dusters” and start cleaning up our Windows Registry! Yay!

Step 1: Call up your Windows Registry – What we are going to deal with today is simply the following: Current_User and Local_Machine – yes you’re experts by now with these two folders so let’s not waste anymore time!

Windows Registry -  Current_User , Local_Machine

Step 2: We’re going to start off with Current_User as it’s first on our agenda – So go ahead and expand Current_User – We are looking for the following folder:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Simply follow the path above to locate our Run Folder.

Step 3: Once you have located this folder you will see your start-up files therein. An important point to note here, is that you should really be sure of what you want to remove/delete from this listing. Say for example, you had your Antivirus loading on start-up – it would be nice to leave that loading for your own security/protection – so please ensure that whatever option you delete from your listing it is actually something you really want to banish from your start-up process.

Step 4: To delete/remove a start-up process, simply right click on the desired process and hit delete. The process will now be removed from your start-up sequence.   That’s all we need to do now with the Current_User folder.

Windows Registry – Delete your chosen process

Step 5: Let’s move on – Next up is the Local_Machine folder. It has the same path essentially as above so you will need to expand the Local_Machine folder and find the Run folder again – use the path below to guide you.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Step 6: The same format as above, if you see something you wish to banish from your start-up process please remove it by right clicking on that process and hitting delete.

That’s really it in a nutshell – Once you reboot your computer you should really notice a significant difference with regard to performance and boot times – if you did have a lot of unwanted programs loading on your start-up then this is a Registry Tip you should be really glad you stumbled across!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, more tomorrow!  : -)

So following on from yesterdays post about how to Remove an unwanted Program from your Windows Registry – today I am going to continue on that footing and show you how you can simply have all your favourite software applications on demand with just a click of a button – the right mouse button for that matter!

Let’s picture the scenario – Have you ever felt just sick and tired of having to go straight to your Start Menu to launch your favourite applications? Maybe you have shortcuts on your desktop, but doesn’t that clutter up your nice desktop wallpaper? Or perhaps you have your quick launch bar all set up too – but for this luxury your giving up some crucial window docking space! What about this solution? – Have all your applications on a simple Context Menu!

For this tutorial I’m going to show you how to access ALL your favourite programs simply by right clicking on any folder you wish. Personally, I find this to be a major time saver when I need to launch applications fast – I never use my Start Menu now and why should I when everything is programmed just how I like it – easy, no hassle and speedy! So without delaying, let’s see this baby in action!

As per my statement yesterday – VIP – Back-up your Registry before you do anything – let’s face it, mistakes happen even to the best of us!

Refresher: Backup our Windows Registry – Click Computer – make sure it’s highlighted – go to the File Menu – Choose File, Export – specify a name and a location you’ll remember and click Save – Phew, we’re backed up! Forgot how to find your Registry? – Click here to view yesterdays post. (opens in a new window for you)

Windows Registry – Backup Registry (click image for larger view)

So once you have backed up, it is now safe to continue but with caution of course.

Step 1: So I’m assuming we now know how to call up our Registry as we have already performed a back-up procedure. Great – We can move on. What we’re looking for here today is basically contained within your Classes_Root folder.

Windows Registry – Classes_Root (click image for larger view)

This is the only location we will  be working with for this tutorial. For our first step we are going to expand the Classes_Root folder as shown below.

Windows Registry – Expand Classes_Root

Step 2: Now, what we are looking for here is simply a directory called “Folder” – yes it is called Folder and it should be within this very long list of entries! They are ordered alphabetically so you can quickly move down the listing until you reach “F” – once you find this entry expand this folder as displayed below.

Windows Registry – Expand Folder

Step 3: Within this folder you will see the above contents – What we need from here is the shell folder – simply expand as shown.

Windows Registry – Expand shell

Step 4: Next, move your cursor to the shell folder and right click – choose the option New then choose Key from that expanding menu as referenced below.

Windows Registry – shell -> Key (click image for larger view)

Step 5: What’s happening here is that basically a folder is now created and prompting you to specify a name or replace “New Key #1”. This is what will be displayed on our Context Menu or Right Click Menu once we click on a folder – so to keep things pretty I am going to specify “Launch Photoshop” as my title for this folder. You can see what happened below – the folder now takes on my specified title.

Windows Registry – Assign NewKey Title

Step 6: Great, you have now specified a new title for this new folder. Right click the folder you have just created, in my instance I will right click “Launch Photoshop” – we are now creating a new Key for this folder and we are going to call it command – please see the snapshots below.

Windows Registry – Assign New Key (click image for larger view)

Windows Registry – Title New Key – command

Step 7: The next step is to highlight your new command folder and look to the right hand panel of the entire window – you will see the following as I have highlighted below.

Windows Registry – Right Click (Default) (click image for larger view)

Step 8: What I want you to do now is to right click this Default file and choose Modify. A dialog prompt box will now pop up and we are now asked to provide a source for our application – “Launch Photoshop” – so we will enter in the file source/path of our application.

Windows Registry – Modify (Default)

Windows Registry – Specify Source File Location

Step 9: Once you have this completed simply close off the Windows Registry and go to a location where you have a folder available that you can right click on. You will now see your new addition to the Context Menu – Click the title you have specified – in my instance Launch Photoshop – so this will now launch my Photoshop application – which it does!

Windows Registry – My New Context Menu!

I hope that this tutorial was of benefit to some of you, it’s a real time saver for me as I have mentioned above plus I can tweak my context menu as much as I like and include as many programs as I wish – quite a nifty trick really and as you have found out – not very difficult to implement! I’ll post another few tutorials in this series as I have promised yesterday over the next few weeks so stay tuned!

As promised yesterday, today is going to be about the Windows Registry. What’s it all about? Well…the Windows Registry is basically like a database. Inside this database you have a number of files each carrying out a variety of different commands, settings and configurations.  The Windows Registry is key for the overall operation of your computer system whether that’s XP, Vista or any other Windows Operating System.

Now, I’m not going to go too much in depth here (I’ll put you to sleep) but we’re going to lightly touch and focus on what we can do to eliminate all those unwanted programs we never use anymore or trials that have expired. In some instances even when you do follow the usual uninstall process whether that’s using the bundled uninstaller executable or via the Control Panel in Windows, you will find that your Windows Registry gets a bit sentimental about your files/programs and decides to keep a few of them…This is where tough love comes into play and you can completely get rid of what you don’t need anymore!

The typical database structure of your Windows Registry is as follows:

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU)
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM)
• HKEY_USERS (HKU)
• HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG
• HKEY_PERFORMANCE_DATA
• HKEY_DYN_DATA

What we’re going to be working with today here is only two of these options – the Current_User and Local_Machine.  Now before we go any further, I’m only lightly discussing this topic, there are so many commands we can carry out here in the Registry and lots of things we can play around with but I’m only going to deal with those stated above today. This exercise is not for the faint hearted, my tutorial is merely a guide to show you where your programs are and what I do when I need to completely remove a program especially one that is annoying me and I don’t want it on my computer anymore – this removal process will get rid of any program you want but it is just the quick and easy way which will do the trick nicely for you. The onus is on you to choose to delete your program – I can’t stress this enough – if you’re not up to this please just follow the process but omit the deletion section. Jeeze, I think I’ve even scared myself from continuing further but I just want to make you aware of the importance of changing anything in the Registry, you really need to know what you’re doing. Ok, if you’re still willing to hang on in there, let’s get started!

Step 1:

We need to call up the Windows Registry – Go to your Start Menu and find the Run Command (I’m using Vista so here is my Screenshot)

Windows Registry – Run Command (click image for larger view)

Step 2: Once we call up the Run Command – type the following in: regedit

Windows Registry – Call up Registry (click image for larger view)

Step 3: If you don’t have administrative privileges you may be prompted to grant access, simply allow. Hit enter on the prompt screen.

Step 4: Your Windows Registry will pop up on screen.

Windows Registry – Screen Snapshot (click image for larger view)

Important: Before we continue we’re going to backup our Windows Registry – Click Computer – make sure it’s highlighted – go to the File Menu – Choose File, Export – specify a name and a location you’ll remember and click Save – Phew, we’re backed up!

Windows Registry – Backup Registry (click image for larger view)

Step 5: As per our earlier reference we are only going to be dealing with Current_User and Local_Machine.

Step 6: Move your pointer to the arrow icon before Current_User and click this arrow icon.

Windows Registry – Expand Current_User

Step 7: This folder will expand and what we’re looking for here is Software – As above, click the arrow icon to expand the folder.

Windows Registry – Choose Software Folder

Step 8: You will now see an entire listing of your Software Applications that are installed on your computer – Browse through this listing to find the software you wish to delete or what’s left over from your previous removal via your Control Panel or uninstaller executable.

Step 9: Click that folder to browse through it, make sure it’s the right one and when you’re happy to remove it simply hit delete on your keyboard.

Step 10: We are now finished with Current_User – we need to go back to the beginning now and to do this scroll to the top of the Windows Registry window and click the little arrow icon before the Local_Machine folder to expand.

Windows Registry – Expand Local_Machine

Step 11: The same format as we used above – we are looking for the Software folder – click the arrow icon to expand the folder and find the application you wish to delete as you have done earlier.

Windows Registry – Choose Software Folder

Please note: Sometimes you won’t always see the software you’re looking for in both Current_User and Local_Machine – but covering both of these folders will ensure you do find it and you cover all angles.

Step 13: Once you have deleted what you wanted to remove please click the X on the window to close off or choose File, Exit from the File Menu Bar.

Well that’s it in a nutshell really, did you survive!? I bet you did! It’s not that scary once you back-up, relax and read carefully what you need to do. It’s always advisable to read everything first before you start stumbling into something you are unfamiliar with!

This won’t be the last you’ll see of the Windows Registry from me. As I have said before there are so many things you can do with your Windows Registry – I’m going to run a series of tutorials over the next few weeks and you’ll be experts in no time!

Remember guys, I am here if you need any help, simply drop me a comment below and I’ll be more than happy to accommodate you!

Today I have decided to post an article about my favourite websites I hop to when I need to download some software. With so many websites out there offering so much software to download it’s really hard to differentiate between those that are safe and those that are really just pretty malicious in nature. Over the years I have a bookmarked a few cool websites I visit when I need to test drive some software before I make that big leap and actually hand over my hard earned cash!

This listing is what I have so far – Please feel free to drop me a comment here with your favourite download website and I will add it to the listing. I will also update this collection when I find more websites that are worth recommending and of course are safe to use.

Software Download Websites – My Recommendations

CNET Download.com – http://www.download.com (opens in a new window)

FileHippo.com – http://www.filehippo.com (opens in new window)

SoftSeek.com – http://www.softseek.com (opens in a new window)

TuCows.com – http://www.tucows.com (opens in a new window)

ZDNet.com – http://www.zdnet.com (opens in a new window)

As with all good download websites it is important to read the product reviews or note the user-ratings. I find that this sometimes helps me to find out if the software is actually worth downloading, what compatibility issues are going to be like for me and also if there are any malware/advertising software packages bundled with a particular piece of software. I guess you never really can go wrong if you follow this simple procedure:

→ Read the Software Reviews

→ Pay attention to the user-ratings systems

→ Check Compatibility & System Requirements

→ Custom Installation (Filter bundled advertising, specify destination dirs etc)

As with most software trials the limitations will vary – Sometimes you will get either a 14 day trial/30 day trial – it’s always nice to be able to get a fully functional piece of software to test drive – most reputable companies will give you the fully functional option but there are some that don’t. Just something to note when you are browsing through the listings – check out what you will be getting within your trial software at least then you will know what to expect and won’t have the hassle of uninstalling something that will only work for say five program launches then in turn completely lock. What use is that?!

Another point worth noting is – Uninstalling the software when you’re trial has expired – There’s no point leaving software like this hanging around especially as you cannot avail of it anymore. Simply uninstall the software via the Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs (Windows users) or usually the software has it’s own uninstaller executable in the source folder.

You should also note that sometimes this does not remove the software program in full – tomorrow we will be discussing the Windows Registry and what you can do to completely erase unwanted Programs you don’t use on your computer anymore – so stay tuned for that tomorrow!