By Steve Bass

I know you're not always happy with your PC, so here are three fixes to some of the annoyances you've sent to me.

Louder. No, Quieter
 
The Annoyance: I have lots of MP3s I've ripped onto my hard drive from CDs. Nothing seems to play at the same volume level. When I play Copeland's "Fanfare," it's loud enough to make the dog jump, yet all of Dave Brubeck's music is way too soft.

The Fix: When you use Windows Media Player to burn music into a CD, the trick is to adjust--or normalize--the sound level as you're burning the MP3s to the CD. Do that from the Burn menu by enabling Apply volume level across tracks on the CD. Normalization doesn't work in WMP when you're ripping MP3s from a CD to disk. Unfathomable, I know, but it's Microsoft's party. So use FairStars CD Ripper to do the job. The freebie does its job, normalizes the cuts, and handles plenty of file formats, including WAV, MP3, WMA, and more obscure ones, such as APE and VQF.

 
Use FairStars DC Ripper to normalize while ripping.

The hassle is what to do with all the music you've already ripped. Microsoft's WMP fixes the problem by normalizing the volume as you play the music. Look under View, Enhancements, Crossfading, and turn on Auto Volume Leveling.

Unfortunately, this trick works only when you're playing the music in WMP. But there's a way to permanently normalize all your cuts. Download MP3Gain, a free--and very cool--utility that analyzes and normalizes the sound levels of MP3 files that you feed to it. Check out the FAQ; you have to send MP3 files to MP3Gain for it to do its work.

Need a Quick Print? Just Right-Click

The Annoyance: I'm in Windows Explorer and found the file I need to print. Isn't it silly to have to double-click the file to open the application and then find the Print command--just to print the file?

The Fix: You're right, there is a better way to do it, but the designers at the Redmond Empire don't make it obvious. The fastest way to print a document, no matter what the application, is to let Windows Explorer do the deed. Right-click the file and select Print. Explorer will open the program that's associated with the file extension and send the document to the printer. Explorer's neat and tidy, too, closing the app when it's done.

Leave My Freakin' Icons Alone

The Annoyance: I like a messy desktop, okay? I don't care if I haven't used some of the icons for years. And no, I don't want you to clean it up for me, thank you very much. Now how do I turn the freakin' thing off? [Actual note from Judy Bass. --Steve]

The Fix: Yes, dear. Right-click on the desktop, select Properties, choose the Desktop tab, and click Customize Desktop. Uncheck "Run Desktop Wizard every 60 days" to disable the wizard, then click OK twice. (I'll get to the lawn tomorrow. --Steve)

More great tips from Steve Bass

TechBite's columnist Steve Bass and PC World Contributing Editor publishes a free weekly newsletter with commentary on the technology products he loves, the strategies for getting the most out of them,and the gotchas that can cause computing misery. Sign up for the newsletter here

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