Having Windows Explorer pinned to your taskbar is pretty common, but when you click on it to open a new instance, you’re taken immediately to your Libraries folder. For some, this is nice, but it’s not ideal. Wouldn’t it be great to pin multiple locations to the icon? Wouldn’t it be great to change the default location?

You can!

Changing the default Windows Explorer location:

If you don’t want it to open straight to Libraries, here’s how you can change it to something else:

1. Hold down shift and right-click on the Windows Explorer icon in the taskbar. Make sure no windows are already open. A normal right-click menu should pop up.
2. Select “Properties” and go to the “Shortcut” tab.
3. In the “Target” option, change what’s entered to either of the following:
   • My Computer: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
   • My Documents: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}
   • A folder of my choice (ie, “C:/”): %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, <Path to Folder>
4. Hit “OK”, and you’re done!

Pinning more items to Windows Explorer:

You can also add additional folders to the icon, if you like quick access to other folders in general. That way, you can right-click the Windows Explorer icon and quickly choose the folder without having to navigate to it.

Luckily, this is pretty easy: it’s a matter of dragging and dropping icons.

Say you want to pin your “Documents” folder to your icon. Here’s what you would do:

1. Go one folder above the one you want. In my example, I wanted “Documents”, so I would go one folder higher — my user folder.
2. Click on the icon you want and drag it down to the Windows Explorer taskbar icon. You should see “Pin to Taskbar” appear. Release. In my case, I click and drag on “Documents” and take it to the taskbar icon, and then let go!

You can drag other items as well, such as the links in your start menu to Music, Pictures, and so forth. Basically, you just drag and drop the folders you want and that’s it! You can reorganize or unpin them at any time.

Combined, these two features of Windows 7 can help make your computer usage a lot faster!

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Having used Windows 7 for a couple of months now, I can say that I love it. It looks a lot sleeker, it runs more smoothly, and everything is more simple to access and change. Microsoft did a great job.

Normally operating systems cost quite a bit — Windows 7 Home Premium costs $120 brand new, but if you’re a college student, you can upgrade for only $30!

How can I get Windows 7 for $30?

If you have a valid .edu e-mail address (which almost every college and university will give you), you can probably upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium for $30. Simply go here, type in your e-mail address twice. You’ll be sent an e-mail with a link to purchase Windows 7.

From there, simply purchase the item like you would anything else online. Then follow the instructions and your computer will be upgraded!

You also might want to make a DVD of your new operating system, in case things go wrong. Simply follow these steps to burn Windows 7 onto a DVD.

Should I upgrade to Windows 7?

While $30 for an operating system is a great deal, I think deciding whether or not to upgrade depends more on how much you care about your computer and how much time you spend on it.

First of all though, you should make sure your computer can handle an upgrade by using Microsoft’s Upgrade Advisor Tool. Then, make your decision!

If you’re very casual about your computer and basically just use it to browse the Internet, type essays, and instant message people, you’re not really going to get much out of an upgrade. Although Microsoft has done a great job in making this upgrade rather pain-free, you could still run into trouble.

However, if you spend a lot of time on your computer and like to do a multitude of things — ranging from Photoshop to heavy gaming — you’ll find an upgrade to be worth the time and money. Your computer will run smoother, you’ll like the look better, and so forth.

Special thanks to Anonymous Prime for informing me of this deal!

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Highlights of October 2009:

• October’s traffic was slightly lower than last month’s, but with over 20,000 hits, that’s still not that bad — definitely one of my better months.
• For the first time in a while, college dorm necessities weren’t the top post this month — in fact, they weren’t even on the top five! This month’s winner is about funny Google Suggest results, with about 4,000 hits.
• A good 60% of my traffic was from search engines this month. Without any huge StumbleUpon bursts (aside from those two bumps you see early in October), search engines becomes my main source of traffic.
• I’ve been pretty bad about posting lately, though I’m working on getting back into a regular schedule.
• I also took out the post rating — while it’s cool, it hasn’t really provided much interesting feedback.

And, now that we’re nearing that wonderful time of the year, how about you tell me what your favorite holiday is?

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I’ve been shaving more frequently than normal — up from once a week to every other day — so my facial hair grows back a little faster. I’ve grown my facial hair out a bit before, but usually I end up trimming it and/or shaving parts of it. After 30 days of not shaving or trimming any of it, I’m thinking I’m going to look like I was stranded on a desert island.

I’ll be heading home for Thanksgiving, where I’ll see my extended family for the first time in a year. Since Thanksgiving is near the end of the month, I’m definitely expecting some weird looks and awkward questions.

So, here it goes!

Oh, and I’ll post October’s traffic stats pretty soon :)

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It turned out not to be quite what I expected, however it was still interesting.

In summary, the article claimed that the reason college costs so much these days when compared to other times is because today’s society demands more of college graduates. Better and more effective services are needed to adequately prepare students for the modern-day work force. More technological equipment is needed to stay up-to-date, for example.

In theory, the increase in college costs should be offset by an increase in wages for college graduates.

What do you think?

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Luckily, this year Halloween falls on a Saturday. Not only do you get the whole day off to do whatever you want, you can also sleep in the next day! If you’re in college now, this is as good as it gets, and it will only happen this year. So you can do a bunch of different thing all in the same day. Here are a few suggestions (some of which may be more fun when safely combined with alcohol):

1. Party. College parties + Halloween = tons of fun, usually. Be warned, though — cops are expecting parties in college towns on Halloween, so be careful not to draw too much attention to yourselves.
2. Scary movies. Meet up with some friends and watch some of your favorite horror movies.
3. Pumpkin carving contest. Buy some pumpkins and see who can carve the coolest design.
4. Dress up. Come up with a cool costume idea and try your best to make it a reality. Bonus points if you can get your friends involved too!
5. Set up a haunted house. You can buy cardboard boxes from a local shipping store and make an awesome haunted house — assuming you have the space, of course.
6. Trick-or-Treating: Maybe you’re too old to trick or treat, and then, maybe you aren’t. Just don’t be surprised if you get some really weird looks and comments from adults!

No matter what you decide to do, be safe and have fun! How are you celebrating Halloween this year?

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This year is a bit more hectic than last year was. Living in an apartment means that there’s a bit more going on day-to-day, and my classes are also harder. Last week was especially rough — lots of piled up homework combined with a vector calculus midterm. Ouch.

I’ve been working on finding a good schedule for posting that I can stick with. Don’t worry, I’m still here!

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A safety school is a college where you’re convinced you’ll be accepted to. If for some horrible reason all of your other schools turn you down, you can count on your safety school to accept you, so at least you’ll have some place to go. Depending on how good your high school resume is, how selective the schools you picked are, and how many colleges you’ve applied to, you’ll almost definitely get into a school that’s better than your safety school. But it’s good to have a fallback option.

Unfortunately, a lot of students don’t put much thought into choosing a safety school and just pick the nearest college that they are all but guaranteed in to. This is actually a bad idea, because if you do end up going there, there’s a good chance you won’t like it.

#1: Does it have my current major?

Just because your safety school is your fallback option doesn’t mean you should forget about this. In the unlikely event that you do end up at your safety school, you won’t necessarily want to change majors, so you should check to make sure the school offers majors for your interest(s) before applying.

In fact, when looking for safety schools, you can afford to be a bit more choosy. Check around online to see if the school offers what you currently plan on majoring in. If it doesn’t, move on.

#2: How likely am I to get in?

It’s not too tough to get an idea of whether or not you’re likely to be accepted, but if you’re not sure how you stack up, you might try MyChances.net and CollegeBoard.com to see how you compare to current students. If you’re above the average, then you probably have nothing to worry about.

#3: Is it a school I’d actually like to go to?

Research the college online to find out what you can. Is the social life bad? Are the professors awful? Is the nearby town boring? Again, you can afford to be more choosy, so take advantage of this to find a school that still feels right to you.

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The average student will apply to somewhere between five and ten schools. This gives you a good selection once you know where you’re admitted, and you can pick your best fit of those. You should never put all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to college applications. The best way to decide where to apply is to divide your colleges into three main categories: Top choices, safety schools, and reach schools.

#1: Your top choices

You should apply first and foremost to your top choices — the schools you can realistically see yourself attending. These are schools that you have a reasonable chance of getting into, and it’s reasonably likely that you would also attend them if you were accepted.

These are the meat and potatoes of your applications, and you should make sure that these applications are bulletproof. Even if some of the schools are a bit of a stretch, chances are you’ll be admitted into at least one.

I recommend applying to at least three of these schools, if not more.

#2: Your safety school(s)

Safety schools are schools that you are extremely confident will admit you. These schools are your Plan B — if none of your top choices accept you for some horrible reason, at least your safety school will still take you. Chances are you won’t need your safety, but it’s good to know that you’re admitted at least somewhere.

Depending on how strong your high school resume is, what might be a “safety school” for you could be someone else’s top choice. Apply to the best safety school you can, but make sure that you’re extremely confident that you’ll be accepted. You can even apply to different ‘levels’ of safety schools, where some are more sure bets than others.

You probably won’t need more than two safety schools, if even that many.

#3: Your reach school(s)

A “reach” school is a school that you don’t think you’ll get into, but you think you might have a chance. Depending on how good your grades are, this could range from Harvard to a good state university.

Applying to one or two reach schools is fine, but they should only be added as an afterthought — not the main focus of your applications.

Bear in mind that it costs money to apply to most schools. Unless you can get the fee waived or you can afford to apply to a lot of schools, you shouldn’t be applying to a bunch of different schools on a whim. Decide how much you’re willing to spend on applications, and keep track so that you don’t cross that amount. Don’t apply to more schools just for the sake of applying, though. Make sure it’s a place that you would actually consider attending if you’re admitted.

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Highlights of September 2009:

• September didn’t bring in quite as much traffic as last month, but as my fourth best month ever with about 26,000 hits, I’m not complaining.
• The most popular post was about dorm necessities once again (though not by as much of a landslide as last month), bringing in about 16% of all hits across a variety of sources, with the two biggest being Google and StumbleUpon.
• 50 College Tips and funny Google searches were also rather popular, bringing in a good amount of traffic as well through StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon has been a constant source of traffic, far more than any other social media site.
• Most of my traffic comes from search engines — about 53% of it. For the first time in a while, my most-searched post isn’t about dorm supplies, but about Google searches.
• I’m now 20

Although I’ve had a harder time committing to a stable posting schedule in the last week or two due to being back at college, I’m still here, and I’m still going to post.

And how about a new poll?

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