Most users of Google Chrome enjoy its minimal interface. So why use a clunky toolbar to display your bookmarks full-time if you don't have to? Like many other excellent Chrome features, adding a miniscule bookmarks menu button is only a command line switch away!

Just right click your Chrome shortcut and choose properties. In the target box, add a space and --bookmark-menu after chrome.exe. the result should something look like this:

C:\Users\LeeM\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --bookmark-menu

This works on versions 2, 3, and 4 of Google Chrome, so it's a tweak anyone can use. That is, as long as you're running Windows - my Linux and Mac versions don't seem to be able to add the button yet.

Netbook users, enjoy your extra 28 vertical pixels!

Note: as mentioned in the comments, yes, you CAN add multiple switches - just put a space in between each one like so:

chrome.exe --enable-user-scripts --enable-sync --bookmark-menu

Wikipedia is one of the most-visited sites on the Internet, for very good reason. If you're like me, and Wikipedia is your starting point for research on any topic -- and your starting and stopping point for quick facts -- then you might be interested in a handful of ways to make your Wikipedia experience faster, more attractive or more integrated. Give Wikipedia a boost with these great apps and add-ons:

1) Save a trip to Wikipedia.com with AQwikWiki or QuickWiki

Sometimes you run across a term on a webpage that you want to check out on Wikipedia, but you'd also like to finish reading the rest of the page. If you install these add-ons for Firefox, you can have both. AQwikWiki lets you highlight a term and right-click to insert the Wikipedia definition into the text in a yellow highlight. QuickWiki uses a customizable key combo plus a click on a word, and pops the definition up in a box. They're two different methods of doing basically the safe thing, but either way, you don't even have to bother leaving the page.

2) Access Wikipedia quickly from your iPhone with Wikiamo or Wikipanion

Both of these iPhone apps are designed to browse Wikipedia more efficiently from your iPhone. They each have their own unique feature sets, so you'll have to decide which one works better for you. This is much is for sure, though: they both make Wikipedia faster to search and easier to read than if you just browsed to it in Safari.

The final version of Windows Mobile may not be ready to go until the second half of 2009, but an early beta version of the next generation operating system for cellphones and PDAs appears to made its way to some of the shadier areas of the internet. And a member of the XDA-Developers forum has figured out how to get it running on the HTC BlueAngel, which is a 5 year old mobile phone.

The video quality is best described as godawful. But it does show off some of the features of Windows Mobile 6.5. The operating system features Internet Explorer Mobile 8, and the OS is overall a bit more finger friendly.

[via Engadget]

Not everyone wants to let Windows handle downloading and installing updates. If you prefer the DIY approach, here are three ways to keep your system up to date without Windows helping out.

1. Windiz Updates provides an experience that's as similar to the original as its name. The twist is that this service won't work in Internet Explorer - you'll need Firefox and the Windiz addon. It doesn't collect any personal information, and IE doesn't even need to be installed on your system to use it.

It's an intelligent system and won't download old updates that have been superceded by newer ones. Windiz also won't install updates that have potential security issues. New updates with It can even provide updates for Microsoft's golden oldies like 95 and NT.

The iPhone has become one of best loved geek toys of the decade, and it's not hard to see why: the slim phone that Steve built packs a powerful processor, 3d graphics, and the power of Mac OS X. In the past, we have seen various 3rd party apps available for the device, but nothing quite so nerdy of as this:

Apparently, there is some demand for APT on the iPhone, and somebody went ahead and ported it. UNIX enthusiasts, when they're not cleaning their pocket protector or watching Monty Python, can now replace the BSD UNIX subsystem in the iPhone with up to date software from FreeBSD, all delivered by good old apt-get. Why anyone would want to do this, we have no idea, but sometimes "because I can" is a valid reason.

[via OSNews]

Looking for a way to customize your Windows Vista boot experience? Ok, you probably weren't, fair enough. However, if you want to spend a few minutes tinkering to while the day away, here's a great time waster.

Windows Vista has a "hidden" boot screen, and you can enable it in a few easy steps.

• First, type "msconfig" into the search box.
• Second, Once MSconfig starts, click the "Boot" tab
• Third, Check the box that is labeled, "No GUI Boot"
• Finally, Click Apply, then "OK" and restart to see your new boot screen

We're always on the lookout for hot Google tricks. Marc and Angel have put together a list of 7 that is really worth a look. Marc says of his own list, "Together I think they represent the apex of the grand possibilities associated with Google search manipulation tricks and hacks. Although there are many others out there, these 7 tricks are my all-time favorite. Enjoy yourself. "

Among them, finding face with Google Image Search, using Google to mine reddit and digg for cool desk-candy, finding anonymous web proxies and more.

I've been a user of Gmail since late 2005 and have loved just about every minute of it. The revolutionary webmail interface, the vast popularity among power users and plethora of scripts, add-ons and doodads - but the one thing that always bothered me was the loss of integration with the rest of my computing. Sure, there are some great tricks and bookmarklets we found for our Top 10 Gmail tips and hacks post, but I've missed real integration with Mac OS X apps like iSale that can show me emails related to an auction I created with it, iPhoto that can compress copies of 20 images and attach them to a new message and even simply double-clicking a .VCF I've downloaded to quickly add it to Address Book and keep on working. Heck, toss in a dash of Automator and I really find myself longing for a desktop email client and the synchronized wonders of IMAP.

Thus began my journey to figure out some sort of a hack or workaround for using Gmail over IMAP with my preferred and well-integrated desktop email client, Apple Mail. It wasn't too difficult, but the setup requires your own web host who offers IMAP email that can scale up to around 2GB or more (for example: I already pay for hosting at DreamHost which offers IMAP with every account, but some companies offer free IMAP, and other hosting companies offer flexible solutions as well) and a little bit of incoming/outgoing server trickery. Another necessity is some sort of tool or plug-in to enable one of Gmail's most well-known features: tagging, otherwise known as labels. While Thunderbird is probably the first fairly mainstream email client to do tagging out of the box, it drops the ball on my need for integration; it doesn't support Apple's built-in Address Book (which so many other apps do), and it doesn't plug into all the other handy tools that allow so many of Mac OS X's 3rd party apps move data from one to another so effortlessly. For what it's worth, I also found a plug-in for Outlook on Windows called Taglocity that should get the job done, though I can't test it because I don't own Office. That said, all my setup instructions are written using Apple Mail, but you should be able to apply them to any IMAP-capable desktop email client and tagging plug-ins you find. As a bonus, this trick will also work for mobile devices that support IMAP, including Windows Mobile, BlackBerries and, of course, your shiny new iPhone. Following is my 7-step trick for using Gmail over IMAP, leveraging the power of desktop software while bringing the innovation of Gmail's tagging and conversations along for the ride.

I've had it up to my eyeballs with the nagging Windows low disk space warning and offers from my helpful operating system to clean up the junk I have lying around. If you have a drive or two that remains constantly on the edge of full for good reason, you probably share my sentiment.

I went looking for a solution, and I found a few. Most of them involved lengthy descriptions of how to navigate the registry just to add the "NoLowDiskSpaceChecks" key. Here's a much easier solution; one command line you can cut and paste into any open command prompt window.

REM copy here 
regini HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer "NoLowDiskSpaceChecks" = REG_DWORD 1 
REM end copy here

(REM lines added to make this easier to copy correctly)

Gmail offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to the way you manage your email. Innovative features like labels, a dedicated mobile phone client and rich script-ability via Firefox's Greasemonkey plugin create a unique appeal for users from nearly all walks of life.

Since you can do so much with and to Gmail, I thought I would round up my favorite tips and hacks for users both old and new. Some of these are simple ideas for thinking about labels in a different way, while others add more powerful functionality for the most dedicated of Gmail ninjas. Of course, this list is by no means complete, so have at it in the comments with your own tips, scripts and workflows. For now, here are mine:

• Greasemonkey repository at Google Code: Started by Mihai Parparita, a Google employee (though unaffiliated with Gmail), this Google Code repository has some of the coolest and most functional Gmail scripts for Greasemonkey, an add-on for Firefox. Scripts for adding colors to labels, saving searches and even integrating Gmail + Google Reader can all be found here.
• The Macros script: Found at that Google Code repository, I firmly believe this is *the* essential Gmail trick to end all Gmail tricks. It adds a serious dose of productivity that can make Gmail more functional than any desktop email client on the block. This script has shortcuts for label navigation, simultaneously marking as read + archiving, labeling messages on the fly and much more - all from the keyboard. Once you get this script installed, pressing 'h' should display a slick overlay of all available shortcuts.
• Trick your labels: Using unique characters to prefix label names brings them to the top of the alphabetized list of labels. The @ symbol, numbers and even underscores are all useful for bringing important labels out of their standard organization, and they make labels more accessible to other hacks like the Macros script.
• Join the Power Users group: The Gmail Power Users Google Group attracts many users just like you, looking for ways to extend and bend Gmail to their will. If you find yourself getting as hooked on Greasemonkey scripts as I have, this is a great place to find other people who are customizing them to their specific interests.
• Quicker Contacts: Gmail includes a built-in chat feature with a clever pop-up window for easy access to some of the contacts with whom you communicate the most, but why limit this handy functionality to the tiny chat area? Quicker Contacts is another fantastic Greasemonkey script that adds this pop-up window to every message in Gmail. One catch, however, is that you need to be using Gmail's standard + chat mode in order for this script to work. If you don't like chatting inside of Gmail though, the good news is that you can simply sign out of chat and collapse the panel to avoid being bothered with it.
• Bookmark any label, folder or message type: Another apparently undocumented Gmail trick is the ability to bookmark a label, a standard folder or even a message type such as 'read' or 'unread.' It isn't quite as easy as bookmarking a website, but it's useful: simply copy and paste this link into your address bar: https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1: and then add any label name, folder or message type after the colon (examples: fs=1:todo, fs=1:Drafts and fs=1:unread). Press enter, and then bookmark that page once Gmail loads.
• Backup Gmail offline: Some Gmail users can occasionally find themselves needing access to their email when they're offline somewhere, or - worst case scenario - their account might have accidentally disappeared. No matter what the reason is, it's always a good idea to have a backup of your data, and email from an online service is no exception. Gmail offers instructions for accessing and downloading your email to a desktop client, with a ton of customized instructions for nearly every client in the book. As an added bonus, it seems Gmail has recently introduced a "recent" mode just in case you want to download your email with more than one client.
• Manage multiple Gmail accounts: For one reason or another, many Gmail users find themselves opening multiple accounts. Throw the ability to run Gmail on your own domain with Google Apps for Your Domain, and things can get complicated. Gmail Manager is an add-on for Firefox that untangles your Gmail web by allowing you to manage, swap between and receive new message alerts from multiple Gmail accounts, including those run on Google Apps.
• Fetch your other mail: A recent and quietly introduced Gmail feature is Mail Fetcher, which can check up to five other email accounts and download all that mail into your Gmail. To help keep things organized, Mail Fetcher can automatically label and archive all this incoming mail.
• Bookmarklets: These are typically javascript-enabled bookmarks that do something instead of simply 'mark something. To make Gmail more functional, there are two bookmarklets which the Gmail community have cooked up to make the web service feel more like a desktop app. The first is Compose (drag that link to your browser's bookmark toolbar or 'mark as you see fit), which skips directly to opening a compose window in Gmail (sidenote: To save my life I can neither find nor hack this one to open a new window; if any readers were more successful, I would join many others in thanking you if you shared in the comments). The second bookmarklet is really handy for sharing whatever page you're viewing: Gmail This opens a new, smaller composition window with the title of the front-most webpage in the subject and a link to the page in the body of the email. If you selected any text on the page, this will be added to the message body as well.
  
  [Update: Download Squad reader bcnewman hacked the Gmail This bookmarklet to create a new, blank compose window in a popup, just like the Gmail This 'marklet. Get the javascript from bcnewman's comment here, or simply drag this link to your toolbar to create the bookmarklet. Thanks a lot bcnewman!
  

Like I said, this list is by no means complete. There are plenty of runner-ups in my book, such as the dragdropupload Firefox add-on which allows you to (amongst other things) drag and drop files you want to attach directly onto the "Attach a file" link, so be sure to (try and) trump me with your own perfect Gmail setup.

Yea, I know you're already bringing your stikkits with you on your notebook, but I'm talking about putting them in your pocket using that 'paper' stuff.

Aaron Straup Cope has whipped together two PHP files that can query Stikkit (which we're growing fond of) and create a printable, foldable and ultimately pocket-able version of all your stikkits. In a detailed post describing his thought process, Aaron links the necessary files with a description of what exactly is going on. When all is said and done,

To me, this sounds nice and all, but I think I'll wait for the iStikkit desktop application before I start whipping out my PHP chops.

I have a Flickr account, and I take plenty of photos, but I find myself not using it as much as I feel I ought to. Maybe Thomas Hawk's list of Top 10 Hacks on Flickr will help remedy that. It's a round-up of tricks, scripts, and sites that make Flickr more pleasurable to use, and though I'd seen some of them already, several of them were pleasant surprises. His #1 Flickr "hack" is Flickr Leech. Its tagline is "because paging sucks," and what it does is shows you all of the thumbnails for any user, photoset, or pool all at once. Very refreshing. That's just the tip of the iceberg--Hawk also points out some great Greasemonkey scripts, some web (and desktop) apps, and more for your Flickr enjoyment.

Sick of the new "better" Google Image search yet? Recent needless-meddling improvements have irritated some users of Google's Image system. Here's a note for Google's UI team: If you're thinking about "fixing" something else this week, maybe you should wander to the cafeteria for some free fois gras instead.

Fret not disenfranchised Google user, there's a solution. Better still, it's easier than you'd think. Google Operating System writes, "I've heard that many people hate the new design of Google Image Search and want the old one back. It's pretty easy to do that, as Google shows the classic design if you disable JavaScript."

Followed by a simple explanation of how to disable Javascript for just images.google.com, it's the easiest fix for a botched user interface ever. I'm a heavy user of Google Images who noticed immediately that one of my most useful tools had undergone an Ajax-y nightmare makeover so, color me ecstatic.

[Via Lifehacker]

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup SQLyog (community edition) for exporting/importing (substitute: phpMyAdmin)
• 1 tsp. favorite FTP client (FileZilla, CuteFTP, WSFTP, CoffeeCup, iFTP)
• 1 whole fresh WordPress install, unzipped and ready to upload (get it here)
• 1 new host (Dreamhost is a good host)
• 30 mins to complete
• a dash of know-how (provided below)

WordPress (WP) is a piece of cake to install, but what if you need to move a WP install to another host, and you don't want to deal with your posts being all wonky and your links weird? You can try using the import function of WP, but I found it to be very hard to work 100% and give you exactly what you had before. Below is a way to get your exact blog back, almost exactly what you had at your old host. The only requirement is that your new hosting environment be somewhat similar (similar version of PHP and MySQL).

I suppose this would be a WP hack, and isn't the way WordPress says to do it, but in my experience, the WP way to import doesn't give you exactly identically what you had before (especially with templates). My way does. So you're ready to bake your first WP turnovers? Great. If you are sick of the old host you are now using, they don't have enough features, or you just plain got a better deal, here's how to move your WP install over to your new host.

Instructions:

Step 1: Use SQLyog or phpMyAdmin to backup your entire database. You should also go into WP and use the backup plug-in to make a copy of the site itself (preferably offline and somewhere safe).

Step 2: Next, use your favorite FTP client and connect to your old host, where your site currently lives. You'll need to copy your theme files, especially if you have made any custom hacks to them. If you don't copy them out, you'll not have them when you move your site. WP newbie tip: All theme files reside in www.yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/themename. That is the folder you want to copy. If you have multiple themes, copy all you want to end up on your new host. I would copy them to your hard-drive, then later we'll put them back. You can copy the whole themes folder if you want, no big deal.

Step 3: You must also copy any theme files you have that you want to keep. These live in www.yoursite.com/wp-content/plugins. Copy the whole plug-ins folder for later.

Step 4: FTP to your new server. If you don't already have the WP software in a zip file, you'll need to download it here. Once downloaded, unzip it, and upload it to your new server via FTP.

Step 5: Install WP like you are setting up a new site. Create a new database, or use an existing one but be sure that the tablenames (table prefix) is exactly what it was on your old host during WP install. Once the new WordPress install is complete, now comes the fun part.

Step 6: Export your WP tables (or the whole database) that pertains to your WP blog from your old host. I generally use SQLyog community edition and export just my WP tables into a "textfile.sql" file on my hard drive.

Step 7: Go to your new host's MySQL database (just created with the new WP install process), and delete the new tables from the database.

Step 8: Use SQLyog to import your textfile.sql file into the new host's MySQL database.

Step 9: Simply FTP all your theme files and plug-ins to your new host's folders. The locations are exactly the same as your previous host (besides the root directory).

Step 10: Lastly, be sure you manually go into your sidebar, header, and any other files in your template and change anything you may have hard-coded to the old host. Most WP users don't have that problem unless they have custom hacks in place.

Hot tip: If you use AJAX, lightbox, and some other special add-ons that are not plug-ins, it is a good idea to let them reside in your theme folder, so if you move that theme, all the cool effects and special hacks go with the theme you're using. Makes things easy.

As long as your old tablenames match the new tablenames (that were installed by WP), your new host will fool your blog into thinking that it still lives with all the same data at the old host, but everything will point to the new host. This is part of the underlying structure of WP, and this makes the blog act like nothing changed, though you are duplicating the files and moving the physical location somewhere else. This act of splicing your WP install into another one you have created give you the ability to get exactly what you had before. Beware that this may not work, I obviously don't have every configuration and system out there. All of the moves I have tried using this method have worked flawlessly, and I have highly hacked and modified installs, so it should work for almost everyone.

Are you sick of those Windows balloons telling you that you have unused icons on your desktop or that your LAN is connected? I don't doubt that about 1 in 100 people finds the notifications useful, but for the other 99 of us, here's a way to pop the balloons once and for all.

Follow these steps (note: this has been tested only on Windows XP):

• Go to Start > Run; type regedit and press Enter.
• In the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
• Create a new DWORD value by going to Edit > New > DWORD Value. Name it EnableBalloonTips and give it value 0.
• Exit the Registry Editor.
• Log off Windows and login again to see your changes take effect.

To re-activate balloon notifications, change the value of EnableBalloonTips to 1.

[Via Techie Corner]