This week we’re kicking off a new series here at How-To Geek focused on awesome reader tips. This week we’re exploring Windows shortcuts, Android widgets, and sparktacular ways to erase digital media.

Temporarily Halting the Autorun Function in Windows

The number of Windows shortcuts certainly seems to grow exponentially with each new release! Thanks for sharing such a handy shortcut. If you were at home (and not hobbled by the restrictions on your work computer) you could also permanently disable the autorun using this guide.

I’m stuck copying a bunch of data discs at work. Unfortunately the data discs have a stupid autorun flag on them! I can’t change anything on my work computer to toggle off the autorun but I have found a solution to help me get through this pile without losing it. In Windows if you hold down the Shift key while inserting media it temporarily disables the autorun feature—works on disc-based media and USB drives too! I can’t believe I’ve been using Windows for so long and only just found this shortcut.

Sincerely,

DVD Copying Drone

Enabling Android’s Power Control for Easy Android Management

You’re not imagining things, the power strip feature first made an appearance in Android 2.1; yay for upgrades!

I’m not sure if this is a new Android feature (I recently upgraded my phone and I never recall seeing it on Android 1.6) but it’s incredibly handy. My Android phone has a widget that allows you to control a huge number of phone features with a single bank of buttons. I used to have all sorts of little widgets from the Marketplace but now I can do everything from one location. You can find the widget by holding down on your home screen, selecting Widgets from the popup menu, and then scrolling down until you find Power Control. There you can select all sorts of button options like toggling on your Bluetooth, GPS, Syncing, adjusting the screen brightness, and more. It’s so much handier than digging in settings or using a dozen widgets for the same functionality.

Sincerely,

Power Control for Life

Data Destruction the Mad Scientist Way

Play Video

From a practical standpoint a paper shredder with a built in CD/DVD shredding slot is probably a lot safer in the long run. From a geek standpoint however… that’s awesome. The next time we have super secret spy guy documents to dispose of we’re doing it, as you said, in style and putting them out of commission with baby lighting bolts. Thanks for sending in the video along with your tip!

I don’t often have to destroy disc-based media but when I do… I do it in style! I stumbled on this one largely by accident. I had a couple DVDs with sensitive data on them that needed to be destroyed. I figured since the shiny layer of the DVD is actually metal foil that putting them in the microwave would make short work of them. (I know! I know! I could have just broken them in half like a normal person.) It turns out I was right! It was freaking awesome! I didn’t get a video of it at the time but I did find a bunch of videos on YouTube where people did the same thing. I will issue one warning: don’t do it for more than 4-5 seconds. After about 5 seconds the metal foil heats up and starts melting the plastic and it smells like hell (and probably isn’t good to breathe in).

Sincerely,

Techno-Pryo