Windows XP: Desktop icons have blue highlight box around the text

In Windows XP your desktop icons text labels used to be transparent but now the icons seem to have a blue background on the text label.
This usually happens to the Windows XP icons for one of three reasons:

·         you have the desktop items locked

·         you have the background set as a web page

·         you have the drop shadow setting enabled

Reason 1: Uncheck “Lock Web Items on Desktop”

1.    Right click on your Windows Desktop

2.    In the context menu, click Arrange Icons By | Uncheck Lock Web Items on Desktop

3.    Click OK

4.    Check your desktop icons

Reason 2: Desktop Home Page Problem

1.    Right click on your Windows Desktop

2.    In the context menu, click Properties

3.    Display Properties should appear. Click the Desktop tab

4.    Now click the Customize Desktop… button

5.    The Desktop Items properties page should appear. Click the Web tab

6.    In the top pane where it says ‘My Current Home Page’, delete all entries from that pane except ‘My Current Home Page’

7.    Uncheck My Current Home Page

8.    Uncheck Lock desktop items

9.    Click OK and OK again

10. Check your desktop icons

Reason 3: Disable Drop Shadow

1.    Right click on the ‘My Computer’ icon

2.    In the context menu, click Properties

3.    Click Advanced tab | Settings (In the Performance section)

4.    Look down the list and clear the Drop Shadows option

5.    Click OK | OK

6.    Check your desktop icons

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Windows 7: Open A Port in Windows Firewall

If you need to open some ports in Windows 7 such as a Remote Desktop Connection, FTP or some other ports such as a ESET NOD32 (2221-2224) ports, than please follow the instructions:

1.    Click Start | Control Panel
2.    Click System and Security
3.    On the right, click Windows Firewall
4.    On the left, click Advanced Settings as show below

5.    In the left pane, right click on Inbound Rules | click New Rule as show below

6.    The New Inbound Rule Wizard will appear.
7.    Select Port for the type of rule as shown below | click Next.

8.    The Protocol and Ports screen will appear.
9.    Select the protocol that you need for the particular service you are using.  For this example, I will select TCP as shown below.

10. Now select the Specific local ports radio button and enter the port number you need to open as shown above.  For this example, I will enter 21.  This is the standard port for FTP service if you want to make your PC into an FTP server.
11. Click Next | The Action screen should appear.
12. Select the Allow the connection radio button as shown below | click Next

13. The Profiles screen will appear.  Select which profiles you’d like this open port to apply to.  I’m going to accept defaults and click Next.
14. The Name screen will appear.  Enter a meaningful name for your open port rule and click Finish.

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Mozilla Firefox: Ask Where to Save Downloaded Files

SUMMARY: Stop saving all files downloaded by Mozilla Firefox in the same folder.

When you download files from the Internet by default they will automatically be placed in a "Downloads" folder. You might find it more convenient if Firefox ask where to save each downloaded file so you can place different files in different folder.

1. Open Firefox and access Firefox's options.

-      Click on the "Firefox" button at the top left of the Firefox window and select "Options" from the pop-up menu, and then "Options" from the secondary menu.

-      If this button is not present in Firefox, click on "Tools" in the menu bar, selecting "Options".

-      If the menu bar is not present, simply press ALT + T + O.

2. When the "Options" dialog box appears, select "General" tab.
3. Under "Downloads", click the "Always ask me where to save files" radio button.

4. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

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