Here is a refresher again on how to hide a file or a folder. For this example I created a folder called secrets in my test folder. I can hide this folder by simply doing a right-click, choosing Properties from the menu and selecting Hidden under the Attributes section. This will hide the folder from all the users.

Whatever the reason might be, if you have hidden files or folders, it is not hard at all to display them again. Here’s how to do it:

Display Hidden Files in Windows Vista or Windows 7:

Right now, the folder secret that I created still exists but is not visible to the users. Here’s how to make it visible.

Once inside your main folder (where the hidden files/folders exist), click on the Organize -> Folder and Search Options from the menu.

Click on the View tab. These settings control what gets displayed to the users. Towards the middle of the menu, there is an option to control hidden files and folders. By default, it is set to “Do not show hidden files and folders“. Change it to “Show hidden files and folders“.

Click Apply and then Ok. Windows will now display all the hidden files and folders contained in this folder. The exact same instructions apply for Windows 7.

Also note that these settings are global and would apply to all the folders in your hard drive.

How To Display Hidden Folders in Windows XP:

For windows XP, simply go to My Computer -> Tools Menu.

Selecting Folders Options will take to the same folder settings tab that we saw for Vista. Now under the Hidden files and folders option, choose “Show hidden files and folders“. Click Apply and then Ok.

Windows XP would now display all hidden files and folders.

Protected Operating System Files:

It is important to mention that following the above instructions would display most of the hidden files and folders but would still not display sensitive some protected operating system files. These files are hidden because of the risk they pose if anything is altered in them. However, if you want to display these files as well, uncheck the box titled Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended). This will display the operating system files within your PC.

There is a way however, using which you can open multiple Windows messangers on the same computer and login with different accounts.We can accomplish this by tweaking the Windows Registery settings of the software.

To refresh your memory, here’s what Windows Registery is all about:

The Windows Registry is a database that stores settings and options for Microsoft Windows oerating systems. It contains information and settings for hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, and per-user settings.

Here is a very useful link if you want to know more about Windows Registery.

Coming back to topic, following are the steps you need to follow in order to tweak the Windows registery for Windows Live Messanger and run multiple instances of it:

1. In the Vista search bar, type RegEdit and press enter. This will open the Registery Editor. From here, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

2.  Select Software and then Microsoft from the menu.

3. Within the Microsoft folder, select Windows Live and then Messanger. On the right you will see different registery settings for the Windows Messenger.

4. We will now add a Windows registery in here. To do this, right click anywhere in the window and click New >> DWORD (32 – bit) Value.

5. Type MultipleInstances as the new registery.  Press Enter.

6. Now right click the MultipleInstances registery you just created and choose Modify. In the pop-up, the value is currently set to 0, change that to 1.

Thats it! This will allow you to run as many instances of Windows Messenger as you want. You can login to each with a different account. If you ever decide that you want to undo this whole process, all you need to do is go to the Windows registery you created and delete it.

This technique can also be used with other software, however, one should be very careful while editing Windows Registry settings. Moreover, It is always a good idea to make a backup of your registry settings in case you mess something up. The simplest way to do that is  by using the System Restore function in Windows. When you create a restore point, all your settings and customizations including changes to Windows Registry are backed up.

One of the best methods to protect your images is to apply a watermark to them. Watermark, by definition, is a an image or pattern that you lay on top of a document, in a different shade than the original document. Usually watermarks are embedded in documents to validate their authenticity, but in the case of digital images, watermarks can dissuade potential violators from stealing your content.

Watermarks can be added to any image using desktop image editing software like Photoshop or GIMP, however, not everybody has access to them or has the required skill set to accomplish that. As a replacement, a number of online tools are available that let you add watermark to your images quickly. One of the most comprehensive tools for this job is PicMarkr. Using PicMarkr you can apply watermark to your images instantly without installing any software on your machine. Here’s how PicMarkr works:

1. Uploading Images:

You can upload up to 5 images from your local drive with a maximum file size of 25 MB each. Or, you can import photos from your Flickr, Facebook or Picasa account by simply signing in to the service and selecting the photos you want to upload.

You also have an option to specify if you want to re-size your images.

2. Adding Watermark:

You can add either a text or an image watermark to your images. If you decide to do a text watermark, all you need to do is enter the text you want to appear as a watermark, and specify the alignment of the watermark like top-right corner or bottom-left corner. You can also choose one of the many presets for customization like “Black Text”, “White Text”, “Black Text on White” e.t.c.

You can also add an image watermark by uploading an image from your local drive. Similar to the text watermark, you can also specify the desired alignment for the image watermark.

If you think a small watermark on one corner of the image is not good enough, you can have a tiled watermark, in which case the watermark will appear at multiple spots in the image. This tiled watermark can also be a text or an image watermark. For our example, we download a Creative Commons License image from Flickr of President Obama, and tried to insert a tiled watermark on it.

3. Saving Images:

Once you have applied the watermark, you can either download the final images to your local drive, or you can upload them to your Flickr, Facebook or Picasa account directly.

Simple as that. With these three easy steps you will be able to add watermark to your images without installing any software and doing any extensive image editing. If you think you want more extensive features like adding watermark to all the images in your Flickr account, you can also try the PicMarkr Pro tool, however, the Pro tool is not free of cost ($39.99) like the regular tool.

Image credit: annia316

Motivated by a need, I tried to find a way to solve this problem and found Aviary.com. Here’s how it works:

1. Taking Screenshots:

No matter which browser you are using, simply go to the address bar and add aviary.com/ before the web page you are trying to capture. So if you want to take a screenshot of Yahoo.com you will type aviary.com/http://yahoo.com in your address bar.

If you find this hard to remember, you can also go to Aviary.com/launch/falcon and enter the URL of the web page that you want to capture.

Following either of these methods would take a screen capture of the web page and open it in an online image editor. If you want to capture only a certain part of a web page, you can crop the image once it has been captured.

2. Editing Screenshots:

Aviary is also an online image editor providing almost all standard features that you can find in a regular image editing tool. You can draw shapes and lines, add text and arrows and use brushes.

You can also use the editor to resize, crop, rotate or flip an image. While resizing, you can simple slide the width or the height bar to a desired specification. The aspect ratio of the image would remain locked during resizing so it does not go out of proportion. Similarly, you can flip the image vertically or horizontally, or rotate it at any desired angle from 0 to 360.

If you think you need more powerful editing tools, you can open the Advanced Image Editor. Features like adding effects to images and working with a color palette are also available within the image editor. You can also use the zoom tool to view an enlarged version of the image and add outlines and shadows to the image.

Saving Images:

Once you are done editing, just click on the “Save To Desktop” button to save the images on your local drive. Alternatively, you can sign up for a free account and host your images online free of cost.

Tip: If you simply want to share the image with somebody without downloading or uploading it anywhere, click on the “Save & Host Online” button, but when it prompts you to register for an account, click “Cancel”. After this, you will see a small “Share this creation” link which will provide you with a permanent URL of your image that you can share with others.

Aviary also offers a number of other on-the-fly image tools that you can use free of cost. These include an Image Editor, a Color Editor, an Effects Editor, a Vector Editor and an Image Markup tool. If you regularly use Firefox, you can also access the Aviary tools through their Firefox Add-on.

What other websites do you use to capture your screenshots?