Windows
Wherever the Registry Editor is mentioned in the following, you will need to go to Start > Run, type in “regedit” and press [Enter]. You also need to remember that editing the Windows Registry can be dangerous, and if not done right, might require you to format and re-install Windows to get your system working again. Ideally, you should back up your Registry before making any changes to it.
Open Without?
When you right-click on a file, one of the options you see is “Open With”. These usually contain what Windows thinks are valid programs to open particular file types. Now, sometimes, when you have bad installers or uninstallers, some programs leave their mark on this context menu. Basically, if you want to clean out this long list of junk that accumulates here, you have to edit the Registry.
Open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER SoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerFileExts
Now, for example, if you have to remove programs from the Open With menu for AVI files, find the extension on the left that corresponds to AVI files and click on the ” ” sign to expand it and find the “OpenWithList” key. In the right pane you should see a list of programs, such as “wmplayer.exe”, “notepad.exe”, “mspaint.exe”, etc. Select the ones you don’t want and delete them.
Next, navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ ROOT and find the same extension. Again, navigate to “OpenWithList” and delete the unwanted programs. This key is where Windows reads from when using the All Users profile. Now you will only see the programs that you want in the Open With list… well, most of the time; the problem is that Windows also reads the Open With list from another registry key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTSystemFile Associations
Here’s where it reads the default Open With list from, but we strongly advise you against changing it because it might affect multiple file types.
Show Desktop Not Showing
Sometimes, we accidently delete the Show Desktop icon in the Quick Launch menu. You can manually recreate it by creating a file called “Show Desktop.scf”. Open Notepad, and type in the following:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
Save this file as “Show Desktop.scf” by selecting the “Save as” type as All Files-to prevent the file being saved as “Show Desktop.scf.txt”.
Now all you have to do is drag this file to the Quick Launch toolbar and your Show Desktop icon is restored.
Another way is to use the Regsvr32 command. Go to Start > Run and type in “regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32.dll”. This should restore the Show Desktop icon.
Save Disk Space
Windows XP, after Service Pack 1, keeps uninstall information for all updates in the C:Windows folder. These appear as $NTUninstall…
Depending on how many updates you’ve installed, you might have anywhere from a couple to a couple of dozen of these folders. In order to save some disk space, you can delete these folders. Doing this does not uninstall the updates, but will make sure that you cannot uninstall them later-though why someone would want to uninstall security fixes is something we can’t understand at all anyway.
In case you do want to know exactly what uninstaller you’re deleting, you can go to http://support.microsoft.com/ /?kbid=<###>, where <###> is the number listed in the name of the folder you are deleting-remember, don’t add the text “$NTUninstallKB”, just the number after the prefix.
Once you’re satisfied, just select the folder(s) and press [Shift] [Delete].
Now, there are two ways in which to remove their references from the Add/Remove Programs list.
Open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software MicrosoftWindows CurrentVersionUninstall
Now, select the key that corresponds to the Update uninstall information that you want to delete, and delete it.
Another way to do this would be to select the update in the Add/Remove Programs list and clicking Remove.
Since you have already deleted the Uninstall information, it’s obvious that you will get an error message that tells you that the update cannot be uninstalled, and you’ll get the option to remove the entry from the Add/Remove Programs list. Just click OK and the entry will be removed.
Remember to check the Show updates box so you can see the installed updates in Add/Remove Programs.
New “File > New”
In Explorer, when using the File > New option, or when right-clicking and selecting New, you get a list of files that you can create, including text documents, folders, images, sounds, Excel spreadsheets, etc. If you want to be able to make new items, such as HTML files or RTF documents, you will have to edit the Registry.
Open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Here, find the extension of the file type you want to be able to create, such as .htm or .rtf, and then find the key called ShellNew. If the file type does not have a ShellNew key, create one.
Now, in the right-pane of the Registry Editor, create a new String value called NullFile. Now you need to close the Registry Editor and restart Windows.
The next time you right-click, you will be able to create a new file (.htm in our example) by selecting File > New. A zero byte file will be created, which you can then edit.
Get Rid Of The Arrow
Shortcuts have an arrow, and it’s irritating to a few people. If you want to remove the arrows, open the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerShell Icons. If this key does not exist, create it.
Now, create a new String value inside this key and name it “29”. Set the value of this String value to “C:WindowsSystem32 shell32.dll,52”, which is basically an empty icon. Now close the Registry Editor and restart your computer to see the arrows disappear.
If you’re doing something important, and don’t want to restart just yet, you can force Windows to redraw all the icons by doing the following:
Right-click on the Desktop, select Properties. Now click on the Appearance tab and click Advanced. From the drop-down list, choose icon, and change the value (the default is 32). Click OK and then Apply. Now go back and restore the value to 32 and click OK, Apply, and then OK. This will bring you back to your desktop, and you will find all those pesky arrows gone.
You can also replace the arrows with something else. Just change the path provided in the Registry hack mentioned earlier (“C:WindowsSystem32 shell32.dll,50”) to the path of the icon you want to use.
Prioritise
Have you ever been busy burning a dual-layer DVD master and had something stupid like a scheduled anti-virus scan create a very expensive coaster? No? Well, it’s happened to us quite often, and it’s probably happened to others who burn a lot of CDs or DVDs.
Of course, this isn’t the only problem that occurs when Windows gets its priorities all wrong, but it is the most common.
Basically, every process (task) has its priority, according to which Windows chooses which process requires maximum love from the CPU. In order to make sure that some task that you feel is critical, which Windows may consider a low level task, gets the ideal CPU usage time, you will have to manually give it some importance.
Press [Ctrl] [Shift] [Esc] to open the Windows Task Manager. Now click on Processes to see the list of running processes. In order to change the priority of a running process, just right-click on the process, go to Set Priority, and select a level. The choices you have areRealtime, High, AboveNormal, Normal, BelowNormal and Low. These are pretty self-explanatory.
If you have a CD/DVD burning software that you want to give the highest importance to, set the burning software’s process to have a High or Realtime priority. Now, hopefully, you should see your burner stop producing coasters.
Recycle The Recycle Bin
Some people are paranoid about how clean their desktops look, and would rather not have icons like My Computer, My Documents, etc. on it. Now removing these is easy-just right-click on the Desktop, select Properties > Desktop > Customize Desktop, and then uncheck all the boxes corresponding to the icons you don’t want. But what about the Recycle Bin? This one’s a tougher nut to crack.
Go to the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE MicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerDesktopNameSpace. Look for the key {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} and delete it.
Of course, you may want to just rename the Recycle Bin instead of deleting it altogether. In this case, you should navigate to HKEY_CURRENT _USERSoftware Microsoft Windows ShellNoRoam MUICache and change the value of @C:WINDOWS system32 SHELL32.dll,-8964 to whatever you want.
Windows Games 
A lot of us are addicted to games, especially the simple ones that Windows bundles. Here’s a look at some tips, tricks, and cheats for Spider Solitaire and Minesweeper-two of the most difficult Windows games to master.
Minesweeper
Most people just play Minesweeper by guessing and randomly clicking, hoping to open out the empty squares. Most people also end up never finishing even the Beginner level of Minesweeper! The tips provided here guarantee to shave at least 30 per cent off your best time in all levels-unless you’re already an expert!
Before we start, you should:
Turn off Marks (?). Go to Game > Marks(?). This will get rid of the “?” mark that appears when you mark and then try to unmark a mine. Often we mark mines incorrectly by mistake, and then waste precious seconds right-clicking twice to get rid of that pesky “?”.
Position yourself in such a way that your left index finger is resting on the [F2] button. This will help you quickly start a new game when you click on a mine and die.
If you’re using a ball mouse, clean the ball. Position your mouse in such a way that you can be comfortable using it for hours.
Go to Start > Run and type in “control mouse”. Click on the Pointer Options tab and reduce the pointer speed. How slow depends on the quality of the mouse and the precision you require. Only playing Minesweeper regularly and experimenting with these settings can help you find that perfect pointer speed where you have precision control.
Basics
When you click on a square and see a number, the number signifies how many of the eight squares that touch the open square are mines-so a “3” means that three of the eight surrounding squares are mines. Using logic and arithmetic, you have to try and identify which squares are mines, and which are safe to be opened.
Openings
Left-click randomly, and fast, in a circular motion trying to get a nice, big opening so that you can start sweeping with some options. This will beat getting a small opening and then trying to figure your way out of a corner. Also, the techniques of the best sweepers in the world suggest that starting at the corners, and making a circular sweeping motion towards the centre for an opening works best. There’s no hard and fast rule, but it is a lot easier if you start off with a nice big opening.
Use Both Clicks
If you spend all your time left-clicking to open and right-clicking to mark mines, you will never get anywhere in terms of breaking time records. And yes, Minesweeper is all about timing. Let’s say you have a “1” on the grid, and you’ve already marked the one bomb that touches that square. Now, that same “1” has four more squares touching it that are yet to be opened. If you left-click to open each of the four squares, you waste time. Instead, hover the mouse over the square with the “1” in it and press the left and right mouse buttons together. All the touching squares will be opened. Remember, this is not magic, so if you marked the wrong square, you will explode a mine by opening all touching squares using the left-right click. Also, when stuck in a corner, and not all mines touching a square have been marked, you can use the left-right click to see which squares are unmarked and touching the number you’re hovering over. This is great to visually finding out common squares between adjacent numbers-like a visual aid for your thinking. Just get an opening, don’t mark any mines, and left-right click on numbers to better understand what this tip is trying to teach you.
Pattern Recognition
If you waste time solving the position of every mine, you’re never going to get past your own record. Instead, use pattern recognition to quickly calculate which squares are mines and which aren’t. The most common examples are shown below. These mostly involve what are called wall patterns. (A wall pattern is shown in the screenshot, to help illustrate what we mean.) Once you learn these patterns, you will no longer need to think about solving them, and will be able to blindly mark them, solve them and move on to more complex problems. 
Don’t Mark Them All
You don’t have to mark every mine in the field. The objective of the game is to uncover every empty square, and once you’ve done that, the game automatically stops the clock and marks all the mines you didn’t bother marking. So when you get an opening, and off to one side are squares that are obviously all mines, ignore them-get on to solving and opening all squares that aren’t mines instead. This can shave as much as 10 seconds off your time in the Intermediate and Expert levels.
Don’t Hesitate To Guess
No, we don’t mean to tell you to guess you way through this game, because you will never succeed. Sometimes, you’re just left stuck with a position where either of two squares is a mine, and it has to be a complete fluke to mark the right one. In such cases, delaying the inevitable is pointless-just make a guess and get it over with. There’s nothing more frustrating than finding yourself way below your best time and only one mine to sweep, only to make the wrong guess. Cut your losses and get on to the next game.
Cheats
In older versions of Minesweeper (before Windows XP), you could stop the clock by keeping the left and right mouse buttons pressed and pressing [Esc]. This doesn’t work with Windows XP’s version of Minesweeper, but you can always download the Windows 98 version and overwrite winmine.exe in the C:WindowsSystem32 folder.
Another interesting cheat is to start Minesweeper, then type [X] [Y] [Z] [Z] [Y] [Shift] [Enter] [Enter] (that’s xyzzy Shift Enter twice) on your keyboard. This will display a single pixel on the top left of your desktop that glows white when you hover an empty space and black when you hover over a mine-this obviously only works to your advantage when you have a black desktop background, so that you can see the pixel glow white when you are over a square that doesn’t contain a mine. It also will not help your time much, especially if you depend on this pixel to solve your game. However, this can help a lot when you’re stuck with an unsolvable pattern (where guesswork is needed).
Alternatives
There are many clones for Minesweeper, including those that use hexagons instead of squares, making the sweeping more complicated. There is also the official Minesweeper Clone, which has an inbuilt recording facility and is cheat-proof. If you find yourself getting good enough to challenge the masters of Minesweeper, you will need Minesweeper Clone. Records are only acknowledged if you send in a recording of it, and Minesweeper Clone will let you play back the records of the masters, in case you want to see how they play. Just visit http://www.planet-minesweeper.com/ to delve into the wonderful world of minesweeping.
We should mention that, currently, the world records for the three levels are:
Beginner : 1 second
Intermediate : 10 seconds
Expert : 38 Seconds
You can only get into the hall of fame if your combined time (Beginner Intermediate Expert) is 99 seconds or less! Happy sweeping!
Spider Solitaire
The aim of this game is to empty out 10 stacks of cards by building each suit from King to Ace. It involves two decks of cards, and you can choose between just a single suit (easy) to all four suits (highest difficulty).
It’s All In The Suit
If you want to have any kind of success in Spider Solitaire, always try to build according to suit. This is the most basic point of the game, because only when you have King through Ace of the same suit (all 13 cards) does it get taken off the playing board. Also, if you have, say, Jack of Clubs through Six of Clubs, you can move that whole build of cards to another slot, together. So building in-suit allows you to reveal more of the covered cards.
Exposé
This holds true for any form of Solitaire: try your best to expose the covered cards. The only way you can win at this game is if you focus more on opening all the covered cards rather than building a single sequence and losing focus on the rest. Besides, covered cards are of no use to anyone, so the faster you uncover them the better your chances of building multiple sequences.
Kings High
Kings are your friends, unless there are no Queens to be found, that is. Focus on building on top of higher-ranked cards. An Ace on a covered pile is just useless unless there’s a two around; a Jack, on the other hand, is a nice option for a Ten of any suit. So make sure to try and keep all playable cards as high as possible.
Don’t Mix
Although in Spider Solitaire you are allowed to place, say, a Six of any suit on a Seven of any other suit. This is just going to get you stuck. Obviously, sometimes you might want to mix and match to try and open out more covered cards in the hope that you get the cards that you’re looking for; but as far as possible, don’t ruin a built sequence by adding a card of another suit. Whenever possible, always mix suits in sequences that already have mixed cards. Later you can always un-mix them when you have a few free spaces on the board.
Dealing Is Death
Don’t just deal the next hand in the hope that you will get some good cards. It’s better to try and keep playing without dealing. The longer you play and the more options you try, the better your chances of opening out covered cards. Dealing the next hand is like the “Get out of jail free” card in Monopoly-only to be used in emergencies, or when there’s no other choice.
Mixed Suits
Often, you find yourself with, say, King through Nine of Hearts, then Eight of Spades, and then Seven through Ace of Hearts again. In such a case, keep an eye out for the first opportunity where an Eight of Hearts is available, and any other Nine is free. Let’s say you have the Eight of hearts open, quickly move the Seven through Ace of Hearts on to the Eight of Hearts, then the Eight of spades on to any available Nine, and then move the Eight through Ace of hearts back on to the original pile to complete the sequence. This holds true when any sequence is broken up by one card from a different suit.
Don’t Touch The King
A very common mistake all novice Spider Solitaire players make is to move a King to the first available empty space. Unless you can get that whole sequence (King to Ace) in three moves or less, you’re asking for trouble. Empty spaces on the board (created after all the covered cards in that pile have been opened and moved) are what will help you win the game. Any card from Queen through Ace, when put in an empty space, can be moved out again, but a King in an empty space can only be moved off the board-when the entire sequence of King to Ace of that suit is completed. So next time a King is on top of a pile and a space opens out, don’t just pop it into the empty slot hoping to be able to build from there.
Think Ahead
Spider Solitaire, like any thinking game, requires some planning. You should always be thinking at least three moves ahead for even a single suit (easy) game. Good players think as much as 10 moves ahead when playing with all four suits (highest difficulty). You will have to learn to visualise your moves before you make them. So when you’re thinking of moving a card, look at the board in your mind and see what that move will mean for the rest of the game-will you be able to continue? Will moving this card really help? Also, it’s most important to see all your available moves before making any move, even the very first one. Sometimes games are lost just because the first move was wrong. Also never be shy to use the [Ctrl] [Z] (undo) option that’s available, but remember that it is only available till the last hand was dealt.
Internet Explorer 7 
IE7, at first look, is decent. You’d expect it to be perfect, what with its having been released so late (two years late, in our opinion). And it’s not. The zoom feature has some problems-certain zoom and/or text size levels make some text disappear altogether; favicons (the icons associated with Web pages, which appear next to the site name) sometimes don’t load, and so on. But on the whole, it’s decent: there’s tabbed browsing (finally), an easy way to add feeds and organise Favorites, a Quick Tab feature that shows you thumbnails of open tabs in the full window so you can switch to one or close some, and more.
Why’s TheFile Menu There?
You might want to bring the File and other menus back where they “belong,” that is, at the top. (That’s one funny decision on the developers’ part). It’s a Registry edit. First back up the Registry, then navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerToolbar WebBrowser
Right-click in an empty area of the right pane, then select New > DWORD. Give it the name “ITBar7Position” (without the quotes). Double-click the newly-created value to give it a value of 1. Re-opening IE7 should make the change visible.
Setting A Wallpaper
One issue with IE7 is that in some cases, you might be trying to set an image as a wallpaper, and the option “Set as Background” might be greyed out. If that’s the case, you’ll need to do a Registry edit. First back up the Registry, then navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesActiveDesktop
Locate the entry called NoChangingWallpaper, and change that DWORD value to 0.
Multiple Homepages
Instead of just one homepage, you can have multiple homepages in IE7. When you’re at a page that you want to add to your homepage list, click the down arrow next to the homepage icon. You’ll be asked whether you want to set the page as your only homepage or add it to your “list of homepages” (still sounds funny to us). It so happens that you can also manage this from Internet Options.
Adding Feeds And Engines
Adding a feed or search engine couldn’t be easier. When IE7 detects that a page has a feed on it, the feed button will light up (get coloured). Just click the down arrow next to it and it’s clear from there on what to do. Now, press the Favorites button at any time to see a list of Favorites and Feeds as well as History. Right-click a feed and select Properties: you’ll be able to select how often to update it, and other things.
To add a search engine, click the down arrow next to the search field. You’ll get a Microsoft page that gives you directions on what to do to add an engine!
A list of common tasks and how to get them done quickly
To disable all add-ons, Run “iexplore.exe -extoff”.
To turn on AutoComplete so that site addresses will be automatically filled in when you begin to type them, go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Use inline AutoComplete.
To change how tabs work, go to Tools > Internet Options > General tab. Under Tabs, click Settings.
To display the Menu Bar permanently at the top of the screen, go to Tools > Menu Bar.
To delete cookies, passwords, form data, history, and temporary Internet files, go to Tools > Delete Browsing History.
To find and install add-ons, go to Tools > Manage Add-ons > Find More Add-ons.
To print only part of a page, select the part, press [Ctrl] [P], click Selection, then click Print.
Internet Explorer 7 Keyboard Shortcuts
Open a link in a new tab in the background [Ctrl] Click (or just middle-click)
Open a link in a new tab in the foreground [Ctrl] [Shift] Click
Open a new tab in the foreground [Ctrl] [T]
Switch between tabs [Ctrl] [Tab] (forward) OR [Ctrl] [Shift] [Tab] (backward)
Close current tab (closes current window when [Ctrl] [W] OR [Ctrl] [F4] there are no open tabs)
Open a new tab in the foreground from the address bar [Alt] [Enter]
Switch to the nth tab (n can be 1 to 8) [Ctrl] [n]
Switch to the last tab [Ctrl] [9]
Close all other tabs [Ctrl] [Alt] [F4]
Open quick tab view [Ctrl] [Q]
View list of open tabs [Ctrl] [Shift] [Q]
Increase zoom ( 10%) [Ctrl] [ ]
Decrease zoom (-10%) [Ctrl] [-]
Original zoom [Ctrl] [0] OR [Ctrl] [*]
Go to the Toolbar search box [Ctrl] [E]
Bring down the search provider menu [Ctrl] [Down Arrow]
Go to home page [Alt] [Home]
Go backward a page [Alt] [Left Arrow]
Go forward a page [Alt] [Right Arrow]
Refresh the page and the cache [Ctrl] [F5]
Stop loading page [Esc]
Open Favorites [Ctrl] [I]
Open Favorites in pinned mode [Ctrl] [Shift] [I]
Organise Favorites [Ctrl] [B]
Add current page to Favorites [Ctrl] [D]
Open Feeds [Ctrl] [J]
Open Feeds in pinned mode [Ctrl] [Shift] [J]
Open History [Ctrl] [H]
Open History in pinned mode [Ctrl] [Shift] [H]
Select the Address Bar [Alt] [D]
View list of previously-typed addresses [F4]
View list of search providers [Ctrl] [Down Arrow]
Firefox 2
Firefox 2 has been eagerly awaited by many, and it was released in December. It’s got some nice improvements over earlier versions, and there’s no reason you won’t want to install the latest version.
Attention has been paid to the smallest of details: where in the old versions you had “Open in Tabs” under a bookmark with multiple tabs, you now have “Open All in Tabs”! You’ll be pleased to know that people are coming up with updated extensions rapidly, so you won’t be deprived of yours very long-and many already work.
Tab Close Buttons
Probably the first thing you’ll notice when you open a new tab in Firefox 2 is that each tab has a tab-close button! This is nice, really, but you might just be used to the old version’s behaviour.
It turns out there are more than two options. Open the about:config page, go to browser.tabs.closeButtons. Set it to one of the following.
0 shows a close button only on the active tab.
1 makes close buttons visible on all tabs-Firefox 2’s default behaviour.
2 makes it no close buttons at all! You’ll have to use the right-click to close a tab.
3 is the old default-a close button at the end of the strip of tabs.
The Go Button Annoyance
The “Go” button is now (irritatingly) merged with the location bar. What does it do, anyway? All you need to do to make it go away is to set browser.urlbar.hideGoButton to True.
Tab Sizes
One irritant can be the vanishing size of tabs when there are too many open. Isn’t there a way to make them a set size, and then have a tab scroll button, you ask? There is, in Firefox 2. (We’re not sure about earlier versions).
To specify the minimum size for a tab modify browser.tabs.tabMinWidth. For some reason, if you want to, you can also specify the maximum size of a tab: modify browser.tabs.tabClipWidth.
With one setting, make all tabs the same width
A Helpful Warning?
Firefox 2 warns you when opening more than 15 tabs at a time. This typically happens when you click on “Open All in Tabs” in a bookmarks folder. It says something about Firefox slowing down. You can modify this at browser.tabs.maxOpenBeforeWarn.
Just set it to the number of tabs at which you’d “like” the warning, or just type in “999” or something to save yourselves a few picoseconds
of thought.
Firefox 2 gives you a warning when you try to open many tabs at once. You don’t need it!
Closing A Tab
OK. This is a tiny niggle, but when you have a fresh new browser, you want everything just perfect, don’t you? Consider this: when you close a tab, Firefox 2 takes you back to the tab “that opened it” (meaning the tab you were in when you opened the new tab) if you haven’t changed to another tab in the meantime. (Open and close a few tabs to get what we’re saying.) In Firefox 1.5, you were always taken to the immediately previous tab. To restore that behaviour, set browser.tabs.selectOwnerOnClose to False.
SSL Support
Support for SSL version 2 is deactivated by default in Firefox 2. Only SSL 3 is supported. If you happen to encounter an old Web site that requires SSL 2, you’ll need to enable it. This is pretty rare, but here’s the about:config key anyway-set security.enable_ssl2 to True.
Search Results
To make Firefox display search results in a new tab, set browser.search.openintab to True. The key might not be present, in which case you’ll have to add it yourself.
The Spell Checker
Spell checking is disabled by default in single line text boxes. To make it do the spell check (if you’re that conscious about your spelling!), set layout.spellcheckDefault to 2.
The Search Button
If you want to remove the Search button, you’ll need to edit the userChrome.css file. Add the following lines:
.search-go-button-stack {display: none !important; }
#searchbar { margin-right: 1em !important; }
To find the userChrome.css file, navigate to
{Drive}:Documents and Settingsyour_user_nameApplication DataMozillaFirefoxProfilesrandom_name.defaultchrome
Here you’ll find “userChrome-example.css”. Rename it to userChrome.css when you’re done with your changes.
Adding Feed Readers
Firefox 2 by default supports only three Web feed readers: Bloglines, Yahoo! and Google Reader. You can, however, add as many providers as you like, and use any of them as your subscription manager. For this, you’ll need to do a couple of about:config tweaks, and add some preferences.
Under about:config, create a new preference by right-clicking on any preference and selecting New > String.
Enter “browser.contentHandlers. types .6.title” for the preference name. Then enter the URL of whichever service you want to use-Newsgator, for example (http://www.newsgator.com/) for the value.
As you add more Web feed readers, you will need to change the “6” to the next number. 6 happens to be the first available.
Create a new preference and enter “browser.contentHandlers.types.6.type” for the preference name. Enter “application/vnd.mozilla.maybe.feed” for the value.
Create yet another preference name and enter “browser.contentHandlers.types.6. uri” for the preference name, and “http:// www.newsgator.com/subscribe.php?url=%s” for the preference value.
You’re done-just restart Firefox.