Make Your Own Homemade Window Glass Cleaner And General Purpose Cleaner

I really enjoy saving money, helping the environment when i can, and making my own substitutes for commercial products. That's why this window cleaner recipe is so awesome. It does all 3 with very simple ingredients.

1/4 cup Vinegar
1/4 cup Rubbing (Isopropyl) Alcohol
1 Tablespoon Corn Starch
2 Cups warm Water
2-3 Squirts of lemon juice


This makes a wonderful non-toxic glass cleaner. If your windows are really dirty, add a shot of liquid Dawn or Ivory Liquid soap to the mix. The lemon juice helps cover up the vinegar smell. I add a few drops of lavender essential oil to mine to give it a pleasant fresh cleaned smell.


For a good general purpose cleaner add the liquid soap and optionally a 1/4 cup ammonia. You can use this mixture for all kinds of light to medium duty cleaning. Good for cabinets, shelves, wood and glass furniture, fixtures and anything else you might use a general purpose cleaner on.

If you have any suggestions or comments let me know below...

enjoy!

Using Hotmail with Windows Mail on Vista

The Problem
The good folks at microsoft have eliminated the ability to use hotmail from inside Windows Mail, the Vista replacement app for Outlook Express. They prefer you use Live Mail to access your old hotmail accounts.

One thing that irratates me more than anything is when someone fixes something that isnt broke, and i have to change my habits from more than 10 years of emailing. I dont like Live Mail because it seems to 'webby' like, slow, and bulky. Personally i prefer windowed client apps over a web based app. So when i found out that the only closest thing to Outlook Express on Vista was Windows Mail i was delighted! I thought well now i can quit using Live Mail an use Windows Mail! But alas, no such luck! Microsoft blocked the ability to add hotmail accounts to Windows Mail. ...what to do?

The Solution
As a programmer i have knowledge of how apps work internally and with a little bit of a work-around i got Hotmail working just fine in Windows Mail.

Microsoft recently removed the DAV protocol from hotmail and no longer allows access with legacy protocols but has now provided POP3 access to hotmail. But they still block and attempt to put a hotmail account into Windows Mail stating that it no longer supports 'http' based mail. BUT YOU ARE TRYING TO ENTER IT AS A POP3 ACCOUNT! even so it is blocked!

If this isnt intentional on the part of microsoft then it is a bug in there software. If not, its strong arm tactics (at the least) to get you to use the web or Live Mail to access your hotmail.

However, as of the time of this writing there is a workaround you can use that will allow you to use Windows Mail to access hotmail using POP3 protocols.

The Trick
The secret is that the only place Windows Mail checks for a hotmail account entry is on the third screen or window of the New Account wizard where you enter the email adress of the new account. The trick is to get past that screen and then it lets you enter whatever you wish!

I use gibberish@hmail.com to enter my hotmail address but technically you could enter any address in this screen so long as it is a valid (but not nesacarily existing) email address. see picture below:

Press next and enter all the pertinent account information nesacary for pop3 access to your hotmail account. If you need to know what settings to use check here

Once you have enter all the info needed and have finished the account wizard you will see the new account in the list of accounts. Double-click the account you just created, now go through each tab and change any places where you see the bogus email address you first entered, to the real hotmail email address. viola!

Hotmail from Windows Mail!