Some Windows Mods

Like it says – Michael Hughes

Warning: I don’t guarantee any of these tips to work on your computer; also I have only tried these using Windows XP Home and Professional editions. They may or may not work on other Windows versions.

First, for those of us who still use IE (Internet Explorer) on Windows we know there is a convenient search function that is executed by typing the search parameters in the web address bar. The problem with this is that IE automatically uses the MSN web search to provide results.
With a simple registry fix this can be changed so that the search results are provided by Google.

To do this, open Regedit via the start run command; as with anything else, you should make a backup of the registry in case you change something you shouldn’t have. Now open the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” folder, next open the “Software” folder, and then open the “Microsoft” folder. Finally, open the “Internet Explorer” folder and then click on the “SearchUrl” folder. This should open a folder which has two keys in it, “(Default)” and “provider,” double click on the “provider” key. This should bring up a child window; now change the Value data to “gogl.”

Now IE should search using Google instead of MSN.

It is possible to create one’s own private characters and insert them into documents.

To do this, open “eudcedit” via the start run command, this brings up a main window and daughter window like this:

In this window, I have already created two of my own characters. To start your own set, accept the defaults which gives you the first available Unicode position (E000); now click OK. This action should bring up a screen like this:

Now you can use the various tools on the left hand side of the screen to draw just about anything. Keep in mind, though, that the size you see on this screen is many times the size it will appear when put in a document, so make it big. Also, because there is no way to check parity across multiple codes, it is basically impossible to actually create an entire custom font using this software. Still, it comes in handy for creating insignia or other figures to go with a signature.

Now you have your characters, how do you use them?

There are a couple ways to get these characters into documents; however, the best way I have found is another start menu run command program. So open “charmap” via start run. Make sure the font menu is set to “All Fonts (Private Characters),” then select one of your characters using the select button and click copy. The character can now be pasted into various documents.

In this case, I have inserted one of my own characters here as an image:

Michael Hughes