PAINT LIKE PICASSOGoodbye MS Paint, Hello Paint.NET
Capable photo-editing
suites are often too expen-
sive if all you’re interested
in is the occasional doodle,
and the learning curve
requires a further time
investment. Solve both
problems with Paint.NET
(free, http://www.getpaint.net ),
which combines the ease
of use found in MS Paint
with enough functional-
ity to release your inner
Rembrandt!LOCKDOWNEncrypt and Password
Protect Your FilesNo sooner was it released than Microsoft pulled
the plug on a utility called My Private Folder. The
password-protected folder sat on your desktop,
encrypting any fi les you put inside it. So why
doesn’t MS offer it anymore? With no backdoor
access, IT professionals feared facing the wrath
of users who had forgotten their passwords, and
parents fretted over what fi les their kids might be
hiding. If you’re OK with those risks, you can still
download the utility from http://tinyurl.com/kxdxs.24 MAXIMUMPC | MAR 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
ICON DO IT, PART 2!Make Your Own Icons
Who wants boring old icons when you can make your own? Fire up any photo-editing
program and create a new 48x48 pixel image, or resize an existing photo. Save the
image as a bitmap and
change the fi le extension to
.ico (e.g., MPC.ico).
To apply your custom icon,
right-click a folder on your
hard drive, select Properties,
then Customize, then Change
Icon. Or if you prefer to change
system icons, open Display
Properties and click Customize
Desktop under the Desktop
tab. You can change icons
for all fi le types by opening
My Computer, clicking Tools,
Folder Options, File Types,
Advanced, then Change Icon.PIMP MY NOTEPADUpgrade to Notepad++
Jotting down notes with Notepad is only slightly
more advanced than chiseling in stone, but we
still fi nd ourselves using the rudimentary editor
for scrawling quick grocery lists and composing
HTML code. With Notepad++ (free, http://tinyurl.
com/552wn ), we can do both at the same time! A
tabbed interface is just one of the many features
included, along with an almost endless array of
coding options, drag and drop documents, multi-
view features, and much more.DEEPER SLEEPEnable Hibernate in the Shut-Down Dialog
Putting your PC into Standby conserves power
without shutting down your computer, but if there’s
a power outage, any open programs and unsaved
work will be lost. Using Hibernation tackles this issue
by fi rst taking a snapshot of your desktop and sav-
ing it to your hard drive before powering down, but
Microsoft neglected to include a Hibernate button in
the shut-down dialog box. To fi x this, fi rst make sure
you’ve enabled hibernation under Power Options in the Control Panel. Next, go into
the registry and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\
Windows and create a new key called System (right-click Windows and select New >
Key). Highlight System and create another key called Shutdown (you should now be
in HKLM \SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\Shutdown). Now create a
DWORD value named ShowHibernationButton and change the Data from 0 to 1. You
should now see the Hibernate button in the Shutdown dialog. If not, you’ll need to
request a hotfi x from Microsoft at http://tinyurl.com/ccbpw.WINDOWS TIPS