You can pay a monthly fee to your cable provider for a time-shifting DVR, but if you prefer control and flexibility to DRM and, well, that monthly fee, you can roll your own DVR with a TV tuner for your PC. More »
Blog Archives
How to Pick the Right TV Tuner for Your DIY DVR [Media Center]
Posted on September 8, 2010
The Million Years of LiteStep Desktop [Featured Desktop]
Posted on September 11, 2009
Reader nitzua’s Windows XP desktop completely customizes the interface without cluttering up the desktop with gadgets you might never see—moving launchers into the context menu using the LiteStep alternate shell environment.
The desktop is a combination of:
- Visual Style – Windows Classic, with a 3dcc by me.
- Icons – Gnome from the tango patcher
- Wallpaper – ‘renew’ from the nature details pack
- Litestep – blend of zero by jive (kareem) and a theme he started for me based on this mockup
- Firefox – Tiny Menu, Titlebartweaks, custom userchrome.css, custom theme
- Start page – my mod of twelve by noka
- Applications – Zeed image viewer (reshacked), Pidgin, Mirc, Y’z shadow, Qttabbar
- Font – Lucida Grande
Impressive job, nitzua!
This desktop not your style? Why waste time complaining? Instead, get started creating your own killer desktop with the easy-install Rainmeter 1.0 package and show the world what you can do. If you get stuck and need some help, join up with the Lifehacker Desktop Customization Google Group to collaborate on new ideas for desktop configurations.
Once you’ve created your own beautifully tweaked (and hopefully productive) desktop, post it over in the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr Group complete with a description of the programs and tweaks you used (and preferably links as well!), and we just might feature it here.
A Million Years [Flickr]
Windows 7 Makes UAC Less Annoying Than Vista [Windows 7]
Posted on August 4, 2009
If you've been keeping up with Windows 7 news, you know one of the selling points is a less annoying UAC system—so the 7 Tutorials blog set out to illustrate what was actually changed.
The biggest change in Windows 7 is the new User Account Control "slider" setting, where you can choose your own balance between annoyance and security—but behind the scenes, Microsoft reduced the amount of actions that will prompt you. The 7 Tutorials blog ran down a list of common actions that triggered a UAC prompt in Windows Vista, but don't in Windows 7, concluding that:
…in Windows 7 you will not encounter UAC prompts in at least 11 of the scenarios where Windows Vista triggered one.
If you are still stuck using Windows Vista, be sure to check out our guide to making Windows Vista less annoying, or check out an article I’ve previously written covering 4 ways to make UAC less annoying on Vista.
Windows 7 vs Windows Vista: The UAC Benchmark [7 Tutorials]
Ultimate Windows Tweaker Updates, Improves Windows 7 Support [Downloads]
Posted on July 13, 2009
Windows only: Ultimate Windows Tweaker adds new features to an already excellent tool for tweaking all of the hidden Windows settings you normally can’t access.
We’ve featured this application here before, but the latest release adds even more useful tweaks like disabling Aero Shake, Snap, or Preview in Windows 7, customizing the amount of items on Jump Lists, and it even automatically removes tweaks that are unavailable for the operating system you are running—so you won't see options that aren't available to you. Since the utility doesn't require installation it also makes for a handy addition to your flash drive toolkit.
Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a free download for Windows 7 or Vista users only. Most Lifehacker readers using XP are probably already using Microsoft’s TweakUI utility to customize their system.
Ultimate Windows Tweaker [The Windows Club]
Windows 7 Will Cost Less than Vista [Windows]
Posted on June 25, 2009
If you’re looking to buy a new Windows system starting today or plan to upgrade immediately, you’re in luck: Windows 7 will be a free upgrade for new Vista buyers, and upgrades are going for half-price.
Microsoft announced today the basic structures for Windows 7 pricing, and the big headline is that Windows 7 will be, at every level, the same price or cheaper than Windows Vista. Starting today, Vista Home Premium buyers (both pre-installed and retail) get a free upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium when it lands on Oct. 22, Vista Business owners can upgrade to Windows 7 Professional, and Ultimate users get Windows 7 Ultimate.
Those with Windows XP or Vista already installed can start pre-ordering Windows 7 upgrade discs, costing $50 for Home Premium and $100 for Professional. Those deals are for a “limited time,” with no specifics given, from Microsoft directly and most computer retailers, and Ultimate may or may not see an upgrade pre-order deal.
Hit the links below for a seriously thorough and slightly compacted read, respectively, on Windows 7 pricing at every level, and tell us what you think of 7′s pricing strategy in the comments.
Windows 7 pricing announced: cheaper than Vista [Ars Technica]
Windows 7 Pricing: Good News, Mostly [Gizmodo]
Windows 7 Pricing: Good News, Mostly [Gizmodo]
Ultimate Windows Tweaker Updates, Adds 20 New Tweaks [Downloads]
Posted on February 9, 2009
Windows Vista only: Similar-to-TweakUI application Ultimate Windows Tweaker adds more tweaks, bugfixes, and better 64-bit support to an already ridiculously useful tool for making configuration changes the easy way.
We’ve featured this application here before, but the initial release had some stability problems (especially for 64-bit users). The latest version fixes those issues and adds a bunch of new tweaks to make your tweaking tasks just a little bit easier, including more personalization, UAC, performance, and network tweaks. The already-tech-savvy might notice that most of these tweaks are available through registry hacks or complicated dialogs, but this application is designed to put every setting into one easily accessible location—and since the utility doesn't require installation it makes for a handy addition to your flash drive toolkit.
Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a free download for Windows Vista users only. Most Lifehacker readers using XP are probably already using Microsoft’s TweakUI utility to customize their system.