Lifehacker readers offer their best tips for skipping the Windows 8 lock screen, mass-closing tabs in the new Firefox update, and keeping anonymous bookmarks in the cloud.
Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or send it using the contact tab on the right.
Skip Windows 8’s Lock Screen and Go Straight to Login
Miguel shares a registry edit that lets you skip the Windows 8 lock screen (the screen you slide away) and go straight to the login screen:
If you don’t care about the information that the Windows 8 lock screen shows and you’re sick of having to slide it out of the way just to get to the login screen, you can disable the lock screen with a simple Registry edit.
Open Registry Editor and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsRight-click the folder and click New DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it NoScreenLock. After you create it, double-click it to open it up and change the value from 0 to 1. Next time you start your computer, it should go right to the login screen.
As usual, be careful when making changes to the Windows Registry. This is a pretty simple change, and we’ve tested it to make sure it works. But it’s still easy to cause trouble in there. It’s always a good idea to back up the Registry before you get started. Be sure to read our guide to the Windows Registry for more information.
Close All Tabs to the Right in Firefox 24
Bess lets us know that the new version of Firefox has a handy new tab management feature:
If you’re like me, you sometimes have lots of tabs open from things you were interested in reading. And sometimes, you decide you just need to do a mass clearing of those tabs. Firefox 24 adds a new feature that lets you close all tabs to the right of current tab. Just right-click a tab and there it is!
Save Bookmarks in the Cloud Anonymously
Jon shares an interesting site named that lets you save bookmarks privately:
Hey guys, check it out:
Doesn’t ask for a user name or password, doesn’t leave any traces on your machine. Anonymously and privately saves your bookmarks online, organise by tag, import and export bookmarks, access your links from all your devices.
Make Apex Launcher’s Actions Less Confusing
MOON shares his method for making the actions icons in Apex Launcher a little easier to work with:
In my green attempt to get Apex launcher looking and acting the way I want, I noticed that some of its default ‘actions’ icons are a little too much alike (to my eyes). I’m thinking of the ones that hide the dock and hide the notification bar.
Until I can make things more distinctive (with some icon pack or other), I placed said icons next to the elements that they’re meant to hide/unhide. This is not ideal, aesthetically, but it gets rid of confusion on my part.
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