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No, this isn’t a program you download that pretends to make your internet faster (and installs some malware as a bonus). I’m talking about using a button on your mouse to make your browsing many times faster.

All (I hope) computer mice these days come with a scroll wheel. Of course that scroll wheel is also a button. If you installed mouse drivers, this middle button can be configured to do anything you want, almost. So if you do have drivers installed, set the middle click to the “middle click” or “standard” (it will be different for different mice) option. If you don’t have drivers installed, you don’t need to change this.

So what is this all about? If you’re doing heavy web browsing, you can set your middle mouse button to open links in a background tab. How does this help with speed? The new pages you open load in the background, so when you’re done reading a page, you can just switch to the next tab and continue reading whatever you clicked on, without having to wait for it to load. Genius? I think so.

To do this in Firefox, simply click Tools > Options, click on the Tabs tab, and uncheck When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately.

This will make new links open in background tabs, which also means they’re loading in the background. As for your middle mouse button, the default action for Firefox to take when you click a link with the middle mouse button is to open it in a new tab.

So now when you click a link with your middle mouse button, it will load in the background. This comes in really handy when browsing sites like Digg or just browsing forums. New pages or threads will load in the background as you are uninterruptedly browsing the home page, looking for more stuff to open.

Be sure to comment with any other quick and easy browsing tips.

If you have a messy and disorganized (Windows) desktop, you are probably taking longer than you should to do basic tasks. Follow these simple tips to make it easier to find shortcuts, launch frequently used applications faster, and make your Windows desktop a more productive environment.

click to enlarge

If you have at least 20 different shortcuts on your desktop, you will find that separating them into groups will make it easier to find a particular shortcut. For example, you can put your internet browser and IM apps in the top left, your games on the bottom, and productivity apps on the top. This not only gives your desktop a neater look and lets you see the wallpaper better, but it also makes it easier to find applications.

2. Delete Shortcuts You Never Use

It’s very likely that your computer came with a lot of crapware preinstalled. You should delete shortcuts such as “Sign up with X Company” and “Register with …”. Also remove shortcuts to things you never use, like antivirus. Your antivirus runs in the background and most come with automatically scheduled scans. You will most likely never need to open the main screen of your antivirus program, so why keep the icon on the desktop?

3. Customize Your Quick Launch Toolbar

When you install a lot of apps, some come with the “Add shortcut to quick launch” pre-checked. If you don’t uncheck it, you will have a lot of shortcuts in your quick launch toolbar that are useless. Remove the shortcuts you don’t need, and add ones that you do need. Add programs that you tend to open a lot while another window is open. I recommend having no more than 10 shortcuts, depending on your screen resolution.

4. Get a Clean Wallpaper

If you have a graphic-heavy wallpaper, you might find it hard to find some shortcuts. A multi-color wallpaper might look cool, but your icons will blend in and you will take longer than you should to find them. This doesn’t mean you should use a single color as your wallpaper, but make it something smooth with a specific color scheme, so you can read shortcut names easier.

5. Rename Your Desktop Shortcuts

Your shortcuts shouldn’t be so long that they get cut off with “…” at the end. For example, you can rename “Mozilla Firefox 3.0 RC1″ to “Firefox”, “Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended” to “Photoshop”, etc. One line names are even better since they take up less space, which makes your desktop look neater overall.

6. Customize Individual Folders

Make your music folder sort by “title”, and make your pictures folder sort by “date modified”. This is just an example, but I find this useful because if I’m adding new pics from my digital camera, they are titled with random letters and numbers, so sorting by title here wouldn’t work. Date modified will make newer photos show up on top or on bottom. You can customize any folder with different icon sizes, sort orders, and other options.

7. Firefox – Customize the Bookmarks Toolbar

If you use Firefox, you should customize the bookmarks toolbar. I have never seen anyone with a customized toolbar, so I guess many people don’t know you can customize it. You can right click on individual shortcuts and click “Properties”, and change the name of the shortcut. If you have a lot of shortcuts this will make them all appear on one line of the toolbar. For example, you can rename “Gmail – Inbox” to “Gmail”, “YouTube – Broadcast Yourself” to “YouTube”, etc. This will save a huge amount of space on the toolbar. You can also drag the bookmarks toolbar anywhere to save space.

8. Set a Quick Loading Home Page

If you want to get to a certain URL right after opening your browser, you need a quick-loading home page. I recommend iGoogle. If you’ve never heard of iGoogle, go to Google and log in (or create an account), and on the top right click the “iGoogle” link. You can customize iGoogle with different themes and gadgets. The reason I recommend iGoogle is because it loads incredibly fast, even with lots of gadgets. And the gadgets are very useful.

Be sure to comment with your own tips for a better desktop below.

I find it annoying yet funny how some Apple commercials always brag about PC’s having hundreds of thousands of viruses while Macs have none. They are highly inaccurate because OS X does have viruses, just not as many. Some say this is because OS X is a superior operating system, and some say it’s because it has such a small market share. I think it’s a little bit of both – it’s based off of UNIX, and it has a much smaller market share and fewer users than Windows. So here is why I just don’t give a shit that Macs have less viruses, adware, and spyware than PC’s.

Safe Browsing

I know what sites I’m visiting. If I don’t, I use my configured version of Portable Firefox. I’ll post my configuration in a later post, but in short terms, I have it configured to block scripts, block cookies, record no history, and disable plugins. I only use this for shady sites I might visit that I know might try to infect my computer. For your daily browsing, use Firefox.

The Right Virus Protection

I use one antivirus program and one anti-adware/spyware program. If you use more than one, they will interfere with each other, and sometimes cancel out each other’s protection. Having more protection than you need is worse than having none. I use AVG Free and Adaware SE. These offer more protection than you need if you know how to stay safe online.

Safe Downloading

Do you use Limewire or torrents to download your favorite Linux distros? Make sure you know what you’re downloading. Know how big the file is supposed to be. A 900KB EXE file is not a music or movie file. Try to avoid P2P networks for downloading things unless you’re looking for a small file under 10MB that would just be more convenient to download from P2P. For everything else, use torrents, and read the comments people write, because most of the time if there’s a virus in it, people will tell you in the comments.

Common Sense

The FBI isn’t going to send you an email with an important attachment. Don’t open any attachments that aren’t from people you know. Don’t open EXE attachments. I use Gmail, which blocks EXE files and other files that might be viruses from attachments. With online mail services like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail, you have a much smaller chance of opening something you shouldn’t.

Most people I know use routers, and routers offer extra protection. Make sure you only unblock ports you know are needed for certain programs. Use the Windows Firewall, it’s not as bad as people think, especially in Vista.

In Conclusion

Use your common sense and you’ll be fine. These are the things I do, and I really have not gotten my computer infected for 5 years and counting. I do a lot of stuff online, yet I keep safe. Follow these very easy tips, and your PC can be as virus-free as any Mac.