It’s annoying to see the following page everytime I open a new tab window on IE7. Even after I check the “Don’t show this page again” checkbox, it is still opening a new tab with this annoying “You’ve opened a new tab” tab.

How do I turn this off to just show my blank home page?

Open the registry by going to Start -> Run -> Type regedit
Look for the following registry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing

Right click on the right window and open a new DWORD value.

Give the name “ShowTabsWelcome“, and right click to modify the value. Make sure is shows 0.

Now open a new tab in IE7, the annoying “You’ve opened a new tab” page is gone!

Recently, I did a spyware scan on my laptop, but found few annoying ActiveX Controls running under IE7. So I change the security setting in IE7 to stop most of the ActiveX Controls. However, I restart the IE7 browser and getting the annoying “Customize Your Settings” home page every time. Even I change the default home page to “about:blank“, it still starts with the “RoundOnce” page from http://rononce.man.com/runonce2.aspx.

I have no idea what this page does, but I believe that Microsoft is trying to guide the IE7 user to setup their IE7 and download new add-on from an non-Microsoft web sites. That looks weird!

Solutions:
After digging into the registry for IE7 and found a place to turn off the Runonce.msn.com start-up page. Basically, it requires two registry key to do the magic.

Open Regedit and go to the following section.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
Look for the following two keys.
RunOnceComplete
RunOnceHasShown

if they do not exist. Add them by right click mouse -> New -> DWORD Value as shown in the image below.

Modify the value and set the value to 1 for both DWORD values as the images below.

Restart your IE7 browser. The annoying Runonce page is gone!

Once a while, there are unwanted startuup items in MSConfig that need to be disabled or removed. For example, the Quick Button service (EabServr).

Open MSConfig, under the StartUp tab, I can see an entry of the EabServr is disabled. I would like to remove it totally from the registry.

If you look at the location of the entry, it says “SOFTWARE/…..” It’s actually under the registry under the following path.
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSCOnfig\Startupreg

As seen here.

It’s simpliy just right click on the key “eabconfg.cpl”, and choose to delete the entry.

[UPDATE 2008-11-26] AOL is announcing that AIM phoneline will be closed on January 13, 2009 (Black Friday). For more information please read the following blog post.

AOL’s best free service AIM Phoneline is closing

You can find out what I choose to replace AIM Phoneline service.

I have been looking into the ultimate solution for my VOIP calls. I want the cheapest calling plan that I can find on the internet. Communication between me, my friends and my clients has been very important piece in my daily life.

I used to use pincity.com’s phone service, which allows me to pre-paid the calls and make cheap calls to Taiwan, China, Hong Kong. However, their service have been very unstable and the call quality are worst than ever before.

What I am running into is that I have to run Skype, Yahoo Messenger, AIM and MSN on my desktop. I used to run ICQ as well. Now I am making international calls to contries with Yahoo Messenger, which is very very cheap. I called my mom in Taiwan for 50 minutes, which cost me less than US $1.00. It’s $0.015 per minute call while Skype charges $0.021 per minute.

Problems? There is not much problem with the call quality with Yahoo Voice, but does with Skype. Sometimes it has a little bit delay, but not so bad. How about incoming call? I found that AOL is providing a very nice service called AIM Phone Line. Check out www.aimphoneline.com. It provides a FREE local phone number that you can receive unlimited incoming calls and voicemails. The best part is that you can listen to your voicemail from the web interface without installing the AIM software or even from any phone, not like other services. Yahoo messenger Phone-in service and Skype’s skype-in phone services require you to install the software on the computer which you want to check your voicemail.

In addition, AIMphoneline allows you to setup an alert or notification to your email and even cellphone, when you receive a voicemail. That is so cool. I will get an alert that “I’ve got an voicemail” on my cell phone with Call-ID. Then I can call my local phone number and listen to my voicemail on my cell phone or any phone. You can even setup a speed pass to a phone number, so you just press * to access your voicemail box without enter password.

WOW! I have to say that AIMPhoneLine totally enhance the way I communite with my friends. One other very good example is this. I was traveling in Taiwan. My friend is trying to contact me from Phoenix Arizona. So I connect my laptop with Wi-Fi in the coffee shop in Taiwan. I open my AIM software and take my friend’s call. The best part is that my friend is calling me for FREE. Because he is calling me through the local phone number. That’s just too wonderful. Isn’t it?

So what is my VOIP solutions?

I use Yahoo Voice for outbound call to anywhere in the world with low rate and good quality. I am taking call and voicemail through AIMPhoneLine. Wait! What about Skype? I hate Skype. These are the reasons.

• The calling quality from Skype to Asia is just as bad as using pincity.com’s pre-paid phone card.
• The Skype-in is expensive compare the FREE service from AIMPhoneLine.com
• I can only check voicemail through Skype desktop software.
• I don’t get any notification that I have an voicemail.

So Skype is out. However, I just found out one thing about the FREE phone number from AIMPhoneLine.com. In order to keep this free local number, you will need to receive at least one call to the number every months. Otherwise, they will pull the number out and give that to someone. Read the last Q&A here.

Why I don’t like Skype? I used to make a lot of international calls to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan every week. Skype said they will announce a new rate on January 18, 2007. As I post this, it’s already over the time. Where the heck is the announcement? Where is the new rate? The rate is already more expensive than Yahoo Voice.

If Skype wants to attract more people to use their services, They’d better make their promise.

Skype Sucks!

I have been looking into the ultimate solution for my VOIP calls. I want the cheapest calling plan that I can find on the internet. Communication between me, my friends and my clients has been very important piece in my daily life.

I used to use pincity.com’s phone service, which allows me to pre-paid the calls and make cheap calls to Taiwan, China, Hong Kong. However, their service have been very unstable and the call quality are worst than ever before.

What I am running into is that I have to run Skype, Yahoo Messenger, AIM and MSN on my desktop. I used to run ICQ as well. Now I am making international calls to contries with Yahoo Messenger, which is very very cheap. I called my mom in Taiwan for 50 minutes, which cost me less than US $1.00. It’s $0.015 per minute call while Skype charges $0.021 per minute.

Problems? There is not much problem with the call quality with Yahoo Voice, but does with Skype. Sometimes it has a little bit delay, but not so bad. How about incoming call? I found that AOL is providing a very nice service called AIM Phone Line. Check out www.aimphoneline.com. It provides a FREE local phone number that you can receive unlimited incoming calls and voicemails. The best part is that you can listen to your voicemail from the web interface without installing the AIM software or even from any phone, not like other services. Yahoo messenger Phone-in service and Skype’s skype-in phone services require you to install the software on the computer which you want to check your voicemail.

In addition, AIMphoneline allows you to setup an alert or notification to your email and even cellphone, when you receive a voicemail. That is so cool. I will get an alert that “I’ve got an voicemail” on my cell phone with Call-ID. Then I can call my local phone number and listen to my voicemail on my cell phone or any phone. You can even setup a speed pass to a phone number, so you just press * to access your voicemail box without enter password.

WOW! I have to say that AIMPhoneLine totally enhance the way I communite with my friends. One other very good example is this. I was traveling in Taiwan. My friend is trying to contact me from Phoenix Arizona. So I connect my laptop with Wi-Fi in the coffee shop in Taiwan. I open my AIM software and take my friend’s call. The best part is that my friend is calling me for FREE. Because he is calling me through the local phone number. That’s just too wonderful. Isn’t it?

So what is my VOIP solutions?

I use Yahoo Voice for outbound call to anywhere in the world with low rate and good quality. I am taking call and voicemail through AIMPhoneLine. Wait! What about Skype? I hate Skype. These are the reasons.

• The calling quality from Skype to Asia is just as bad as using pincity.com’s pre-paid phone card.
• The Skype-in is expensive compare the FREE service from AIMPhoneLine.com
• I can only check voicemail through Skype desktop software.
• I don’t get any notification that I have an voicemail.

So Skype is out. However, I just found out one thing about the FREE phone number from AIMPhoneLine.com. In order to keep this free local number, you will need to receive at least one call to the number every months. Otherwise, they will pull the number out and give that to someone. Read the last Q&A here.