Speed up Windows 7 and reduce hard drive activity

Disable Superfetch.  Start > Run > services.msc - then right click on Superfetch and stop the service.  Double click on Superfetch, and chnage the "Startup type" to "Disabled".

Change what is indexed for search.  Go to "Control Panel", and search for "Indexing options".  Don't search in Outlook or any other directory, except for the "Start Menu".

In Task Scheduler, disable defrag and "RACTask".

How to download and install an old version of Google Chrome on Windows 7

1) Uninstall Chrome

2) Go to: http://www.oldversion.com/windows/download/google-chrome-22-0-1229-0

3) Install Chrome 22

4) Once chrome is installed, enter about:plugins in the location bar

5) Search for "Google Update" and click on disable

Fixing Google Chrome on Windows with EMET

Sometime during the spring and summer of 2014, Google Chrome was conflicting with Windows EMET.  Sometimes, Chrome wouldn't display Flash pages, sometimes you'd get the "He's Dead Jim" message, sometimes you'd get the "Woah Google Chrome has crashed" message, and other times, Chrome would start but you'd just get blank white pages, even with the settings page.  The Chromium developers fixed it, but as of July 9, 2014, the stable and beta versions of Chrome are still broken.  Here's a simple fix: install Google Chrome Canary, which is a more cutting edge version, which is working fine for me.

How to save an encrypted iPhone voice mail as an mp3 on Windows

My daughter left me her voice mail today.  She had her mom's phone on the way home, called me, and cried for 72.78 seconds.  I had to save this voice mail, so this is how I did it:

1. Backup your iphone using iTunes
2. Download Backuptrans itunes Backup Extractor: http://www.backuptrans.com/itunes-backup-extractor.html
3. This will allow you to retrieve up to 3 voice mails
4. To convert the .amr file to .mp3, use http://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-mp3

Resolve "Can't right click on message in Outlook 2003" issue

For a long time, I haven't been able to right click on an email in Outlook 2003 (e.g. to flag it).  This is how to resolve it:

1) Exit Outlook and other Office apps

2) Go to C:\users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FORMS

3) Delete the FRMCACHE.DAT file

4) Restart Outlook

How to disable Java Updater Tray Icon in Windows

If you ask Java to disable the tray icon, sometimes it won't respect your wishes.  The issue is that the Administrator needs to disable it.  This what you do:

1) Start the command prompt as the Administrator
2) cd \Program Files\Java\jre6\bin
3) javacpl
4) Go to the Advanced Tab
5) Expand Miscellaneous
6) Uncheck the Place Java icon in system tracy
7) Right click the Java icon, and click on Cancel
8) Under Advanced | JRE Auto-Download, switch it to Never Auto-Download