I’m a fan of keyboard shortcuts. They are just easier to use at times. iTunes is one of the applications I like to use keyboard shortcuts with the most. Here are a list of keyboard shortcuts you can use to navigate your iTunes music library.

• Enter = Play selected song
• Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow = Next Song
• Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow = Previous Song
• Shift + Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow = Listen to the next album in a list
• Shift + Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow = Listen to the previous album in a list
• F5 = Refresh Party Shuffle list
• Ctrl-click the checkbox next to a song = Checks or unchecks all songs in a list
• Ctrl + Delete = Delete the selected playlist immediately
• Shift + Delete = Delete the selected playlist and all songs listed in it
• Shift + Delete = Delete the selected song from your library and all playlists
• Shift + double-click the title bar = Zoom the window
• Ctrl + T = Toggle Visualizer
• Ctrl + F = Toggle Visualizer full-screen
• Ctrl + M = Mini Player
• Ctrl + U = Stream audio from a URL

There is kind of a hidden spot where you can change the format that you import CD songs from the typical AAC format to MP3, WAV, etc.

1. In iTunes, click Edit > Preferences.

2. In the middle of the window, click the Import Settings… button.

3. Change the field for Import Using to a desired setting. AAC Encoder, AIFF Encoder, MP3 Encoder, Apple Lossless Encoder, or WAV Encoder.

Is the Nero Scout under My Computer annoying you? Here is how to remove this option.

1. Click Start > Run.

2. Type regsvr32 /u “%CommonProgramFiles%\Nero\Lib\MediaLibraryNSE.dll”

3. Click OK.

You should get a message that the registration succeeded. This should have officially removed Nero Scout from My Computer.

If you wish to bring it back, just type regsvr32 /u “%CommonProgramFiles%\Nero\Lib\MediaLibraryNSE.dll” instead.

These instructions are for Nero 8. For Nero 7, see Remove Nero 7’s “Nero Scout” from My Computer

When trying to play a song in Songbird for Windows, I had a problem where I got an error:

Songbird has encountered the following media core error:
Internal data flow error.

To solve this problem, I had to perform the following steps:

1. Click the Tools > Add-ons.

2. Set ACM MP3 Decoder plugin to Disable.

3. Restart Songbird.

There are other suggestions in the comments sections at the article: Songbird has encountered the following media core error: Internal data flow error.

I recently encountered a problem on one of my PC’s where I couldn’t download any attachments in Yahoo Mail. Instead, I would get an error:

The requested URL was not found on this Server

The type of attachment didn’t matter. Every one did this. Luckily, I found that my Trend Micro anti-virus application was causing the problem. In Trend Micro, I had to go to:

Virus Controls > Protection Against Viruses >  Settings

and uncheck the box that said Threats in Web mail attachments.

Now I can download attachments in Yahoo Mail with no problem.

If you are using a different anti-virus program and you have this issue, there might be a similar setting. Yahoo has built in anti-virus scanning, so two anti-virus software packages trying to scan your email attachments is probably not needed.

If you have an application that can’t connect to the Internet and you are running Norton 360, you may want to disable the firewall so that you can troubleshoot the issue. Here’s how:

1. Launch the Norton 360 application.

2. Select Tasks & Settings.

3. Select Change Advanced Settings.

4. Select Firewall Protection Settings.

5. Under Firewall, select Off.

6. Click Apply.

7. Under How long should the firewall remain turned off? set a time to keep it off.

8. Click OK.

9. Click Close.

My mother is not that good with computers. She regularly gets a message when she starts up her PC that says:

An update to your Adobe Flash Player is available

She is prompted to Install Now, Remind Me Later, or Don’t Install and she’s not sure what to do. I’ve decided I had enough of Flash Player being this intrusive. I had to disable it. Here’s how:

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If you are on a slow Internet connection, the songs you preview in the iTunes Store can play choppy. You may want to make iTunes load the entire song preview before playing it for you so you can actually hear what you might be buying. Here’s how to do it in Windows:

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type %appdata% and click OK.

3. Open the Apple Computer folder.

4. Open the iTunes folder.

5. Open the iTunesPrefs.xml file using Wordpad.

6. Scroll down to the User Preferences section. There should be a couple of lines that say:

<key>User Preferences</key>
<dict>

7. Below that line, type in the following:

<key>load-complete-preview-before-playing</key>
<data>
dHJ1ZQ==
</data>

8. Save and close the iTunesPrefs.xml file. Now the music will be prebuffered and not be so choopy.

You may want to reset the counter on a music file that keeps track of how many times you play a file in iTunes. Here’s how:

• If you wish to reset the play count for one song, simply right-click the entry in iTunes, and select Reset Play Count. Click  on the dialog that appears.

  

• You can also do multiple files by using the CTRL buttons to highlight more than one file, the right-click on one of them. Selecting Reset Play Count then will reset them all.
• Use Edit > Select All to select all music files if you wish to right-click and Reset Play Count.

Remember the older version of iTunes? Back when it listed all of your files, no matter if they were video, music, or podcasts under your entire library? Now by default it splits them into categories like Music, Movies and TV Shows. I prefer everything to be listed under one screen. Here is a hack that will enable this feature again on newer versions of iTunes.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R or click Start and select Run.

2. Type %appdata% and click OK.

3. Open the Apple Computer folder.

4. Open the iTunes folder.

5. Open the iTunesPrefs.xml file using Wordpad.

6. Scroll down to the User Preferences section. There should be a couple of lines that say:

<key>User Preferences</key>
<dict>

7. Below that line, type in the following:

<key>show-library-playlist</key>
<data>
dHJ1ZQ==
</data>

8. Close and save the file. Now when you open iTunes there will be a seperate selection for your entire Library on the left pane. All your files will be under this selection.

Nobody needs to Genre column in iTunes. Half the time the genre isn’t even accurate to the song. Disable it with this iTunes hack for Windows.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R or go to Start > Run.

2. Type %appdata% and click OK.

3. Open the AppleComputer folder.

4. Open the iTunes folder.

5. Open the iTunesPrefs.xml file using Wordpad.

6. Scroll down to the User Preferences section. There should be a couple of lines that say:

<key>User Preferences</key>
<dict>

7. Below that line, type in the following:

<key>show-genre-when-browsing</key>
<data>
AA==
</data>

8. Save and close the iTunesPrefs.xml file. When you reopen iTunes, the Genre column will be gone.

I have adopted Google Chrome as my browser of choice recently. I recently noticed that my bookmark bar along the top of the screen had disappeared. It would only reappear on certain web sites such as the Home page. I guess I must’ve hit something accidentally to make it do this.

Luckily, it was a simple solution to bring the bookmark bar back. By simply holding down the CTRL key while pressing B, the bar reappeared and stayed there. You can use CTRL + B to toggle it back and forth and remove the bar if you’d like to browse the web in a bigger window.

They removed the setting to play songs while improting in iTunes 8. You can enable this setting again with a tweak.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type %appdata% and click OK.

3. Open the Apple Computer folder.

4. Open the iTunes folder.

5. Open the iTunesPrefs.xml file using Wordpad.

6. Scroll down to the User Preferences section. There should be a couple of lines that say:

<key>User Preferences</key>
<dict>

7. Below that line, type in the following:

<key>play-songs-while-importing</key>
<data>
dHJ1ZQ==
</data>

8. Save and close the iTunesPrefs.xml file. Now iTunes will play the songs as you are importing CD’s.

There used to be an option in iTunes that let you decide whether or not you wanted to import the track numbers along with the CD’s that you import. That option is no longer in the software. Using this trick though, you can disable track numbers again.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type %appdata% and click OK.

3. Open the Apple Computer folder.

4. Open the iTunes folder.

5. Open the iTunesPrefs.xml file using Wordpad.

6. Scroll down to the User Preferences section. There should be a couple of lines that say:

<key>User Preferences</key>
<dict>

7. Below that line, type in the following:

<key>create-filenames-with-tracknumber</key>
<data>
AA==
</data>

8. Save and close the iTunesPrefs.xml file. iTunes will no longer import track numbers on your imported CD’s now.

Usually, the arrows next to the artist and song name take you to the iTunes store if you click them. What if you want them to just search your library instead? For example, clicking on the arrow next to AC/DC brings up all the AC/DC songs you own. You can make iTunes do this with a tweak.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type %appdata% and click OK.

3. Open the Apple Computer folder.

4. Open the iTunes folder.

5. Open the iTunesPrefs.xml file using Wordpad.

6. Scroll down to the User Preferences section. There should be a couple of lines that say:

<key>User Preferences</key>
<dict>

7. Below that line, type in the following:

<key>invertStoreLinks</key>
<data>
dHJ1ZQ==
</data>

8. Close and save the file. Now when you open iTunes, clicking the arrows will search your music files instead of going to the iTunes Store. You will have a screen like the following:

I accidentally click those annoying arrows on the songs in iTunes all the time. Then I have to wait while the iTunes Store loads. There is a hidden way to disable the arrows though. Here’s how:

1. Close iTunes.

2. Navigate to your iTunesPrefs.xml file, normally located at:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes in Windows XP

or

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes in Vista

3. Open the file using Notepad or Wordpad.

4. Scroll down to where is says:

<key>User Preferences</key>
<dict>

5. Below the <dict> line, type the following:

<key>show-store-arrow-links</key>
<data>
AA==
</data>

6. Close and save the file. Now when you relaunch iTunes, the arrows will be gone.

Of course, you can do this in Mac too.

The 5 star rating system in iTunes is a little limited. I enjoy using half stars to rate songs. Mac users have been able to do this for months. Luckily I found a tweak so that you can do it in Windows.

You can’t do this in iTunes without a little trickery. Here’s how you can enable half star-ratings:

1. Close iTunes.

2. Navigate to your iTunesPrefs.xml file, normally located at:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes in Windows XP

or

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes in Vista

3. Open the file using Notepad or Wordpad.

4. Scroll down to where is says:

<key>User Preferences</key>
<dict>

5. Below that line, type the following:

<key>allow-half-stars</key>
<data>
dHJ1ZQ==
</data>

6. Close and save the file. Now when you open iTunes, you should be able to give songs a rating using half-stars.

Playing with images, video and music on a computer is the most fun you can have. Thankfully, I’ve come across a bunch of free media programs that I have added to my aresnal recently. I thought I would share a simple list of them.

Music

Frostwire - Instead of Limewire, to download music.

Audacity – To edit music files and make ringtones.

InfraRecorder – To burn my CD’s.

Songbird - To play my music

Video

DVD Flick – To make DVD’s out of almost any video file.

CamStudio – To make videos out of what I’m doing on my computer screen.

Images

Paint.NET – To edit photos and make images.

Imgv – For photo slideshow presentations.

iTunes is klunky and slow. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to download your music to your iPod without being aggravated with iTunes? You might be shocked to find there are several options. Here are the top selections for iTunes alternatives.

1. CopyTrans Suite – Manage playlists, rate songs, transfer album artwork and copy songs to iPod. All this in a download that’s under 1MB. This is my preferred software for my new Nano.

2. Banshee – The top choice for Linux users. Mange your music, make CD’s and sync with your music player. Sorry Windows and Mac owners, there is no version for you.

3. Songbird – Built around the Mozilla web browser. Has iPod support with a third-party extension. Many more extensions are available as well as themes, so it can do almost anything you want it to. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

These are the 3 that I am familiar with. There are other options that are a bit outdated. Floola seems popular, but you have to run iTunes once and copy a file to your iPod. That seems to defeat the purpose. I remember GKTPOD worked with my old iPod, but the open-source project seems inactive leaving me to believe that it won’t work with many newer devices. Yamipod looks promising, but I haven’t tried it yet. Enjoy any of these. Anything prevent iTunes and QuickTime from bogging down your system right?

I recently had software that was stuck at a point where it was trying to install the Microsoft .NET Framework during the installation. It failed over and over because the installer wasn’t able to remove and reinstall the files it needed to. Luckily I was able to manually remove the .NET Framework 2.0 so that I could reinstall it using these steps:

These steps were written for Windows XP users but will work in other versions of Windows.

1. Hold down the Windows Key and press R to bring up the Run box.

2. Type installer in the Open box, then click OK.

3. Click View > Details.

4. Right-click the Name column header, and then click Comments.

5. Right-click and choose Uninstall on any file that says Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 RTL x86 under the Comments column.

6. Close the Installer folder.

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