7 MoreTips & Tricks Microsoft Probably Won’t Tell You About the Xbox 360

1. System updates by disc

Not got your console online yet, or having trouble downloading the latest dashboard update? Try downloading it from a web-connected PC or Mac instead and burning it to a CD. Grab the latest (well, latest-ish - hopefully Microsoft will update the page soon) update from the XBox 360 System Updates page, burn it to disc, then pop that disc into the 360 and turn it on. You'll be prompted automatically as to whether you want to run the update.
2. The towel trick

Bit of a controversial one this, at least as long as you count "possibly burning your house down" as controversial. What it is is a short-term fix for the infamous red rings of death, the mournful LEDs that announce your 360 is deaded. There are various theories about why it works, but the important thing is that, for some people, it does. The way to do it is to wrap the console in a towel or two - ensuring all sides of it are covered - then turn it on and leave it running for 10 minutes or so. Then turn it off, remove the towels, turn it on again and pray. If it's worked, it'll only stay alive for a few hours, but doing this a couple of times may be enough to get you through those long, lonely days while you wait for Microsoft to collect and replace your dead Xbox. Again though, it's dangerous - it could damage the console further, and could cause enough heat to set stuff on fire.

3. Clear the cache

Is your 360 dawdling along like a gin-addled pensioner? It's possible its hard drive is full up with junk files from old games and downloads - a spring clean could work wonders. There's a hidden function to clear out the cache, though be warned it'll delete any game patches too, so you'll probably have to redownload a few. Head to the System blade, select memory, HD, then press Y. Next, hit X, X, Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X and X. You should get a message about maintenance. Don't expect miracles, but if a game's been slowing down mysteriously lately, this could cure it, plus free up some extra space on your HD.

4. Makeshift web-browsing

Microsoft's continued refusal to add a web browser to the 360 is infuriating, but there are a few ways to stare at the internet with your console if you've also got a PC in the house and on the same network, and running either Windows XP Media Center or Vista Home Premium/Ultimate. There are several ways to do it, but perhaps the easiest is the MCE Browser plug-in. It's somewhat limited, but set it up on your Media Center PC then configure your 360 as a Media Extender and you can access your favourite web pages from it.

5. Stream Netflix movies

One for US 360 owners only, this. Again thanks to Windows Media Center and a free third-party plug-in called vmcNetflix you can save yourself from picking up an expensive set-top box to stream downloaded Netflix movies, as well as being able to manage your queue and set up new downloads from your PC. Install it, configure your 360 as a Media Center Extender and you're away.

6. Quieten the damn thing down

The 360's heat issues are well known, but they don't mean the box has to quite as noisy as it is. That's down to Microsoft using the cheapest fans it can get its hands on, which make an awful racket and are quite a distraction when you're watching a movie. If you're prepared to neuter your warranty, you can replace them with near-silent third-party jobs, such as the Talismoon WhisperFan. Go to real extremes with a complete replacement case, the Lian Li XB-01. Unfortunately, neither of these will silence the roar of the DVD drive, but once the upcoming dashboard update introduces installing games to the console's hard drive, that'll be less of a problem.

7. Insert special characters in your gamer profile

Oh, boring, boring text. Why can't we make our Gamercards a bit flashier? Fortunately, there is a way, but unfortunately it involves screwing around with Far Eastern languages. It's a bit of a complex process to explain in words alone, but this video made by a helpful soul will guide you through the entire process.

10 Tips & Tricks Microsoft Probably Won’t Tell You About the Xbox 360

• Connect your Xbox 360 to two screens at once.

If you’ve got one of the component or a composite dual video cables, the one that comes in the box with most 360s – you can have your console display its gamey goodness on two TVs simultaneously. The trick is to flick the cable’s switch to Standard Definition but hook up yellow cable to one screen and the component, then the red, green, blue cables to another. It won’t be high-def, but it could be handy if you’re staging a mini LAN party and want to set up a display for bored spectators to point their eyes at.

• Play your own music in original Xbox games.

That you can fire up your own MP3s during a 360 game is common knowledge, but it doesn’t work if you’re playing a title from the original Xbox. There’s a way around it. Start playing your album or play list before you load the game, and it’ll keep on playing once you do fire the title up. The game’s own music won’t be muted, however, so if you can’t do that in its settings you’ll go mad from the weird cacophony. It works best when you have a Zune. XD

• Your Xbox 360 can write its own blog!

Just hit up 360voice.com and sign up. Feel free to add me as well. My gamertag is KiqRoqz. This is a great free way in allowing your xbox 360 have a voice! It’s pretty fun too and hilarious to what your xbox says. You can also start your own groups and join challenges as well. So have fun.

• Play Xbox 360 games online for free without a Live account.

Don’t you hate that you have to pay to play online on your xbox 360? Well if you know what you’re doing and you do it right, you can easily get around that. You can easily do that by getting an app called Xling Kai. It’s free and you have to run it from a PC with the same connection as your xbox 360. It will trick the xbox to think its a LAN connection. BUT!!! If you have a ping higher than 3 oms you will gt booted out. So be care who you choose to play with. Try to play local, k?

• Interact with your Xbox 360 music.

Hit X while playing a music CD or file, it doesn’t matter if its from a hard drive, disc or MP3 player. All this do though is play with the visualizations, you van do this by pressing the thumb pad up or down or just press some buttons to shift the colors.

• Connect your Xbox 360 to a wireless network without an official adapter.

If you have spent 50 bucks on that overpriced Wi0Fi adapter then, I feel sorry for you bud. The only thing is you have to have a laptop. Yea yea, there is always a catch to these type of things but hey, you knew that from the start right? Anyway, go to Control Panel > Network Connections > Local Area Connections and Wireless Network Connection at once then right click and hit bridge connections. Then you’ll have to disconnect then reconnect to your wireless network, then run a network cable from the laptops Ethernet port to the 360’s Ethernet port then after that you really should be okay from there.

• Play music from your iPod.

Microsoft let alone Bill Gates isn’t an Apple fan but if you go to the Marketplace you van find a download that is called “Optional iPod Support”. Download that and plug in your iPod. No iPhones are supported yet so that’s going to suck if that’s all you have. Go to your Media section under My Xbox and you’ll see your iPod there.

• Reset your Xbox 360 video settings.

Ever wanted to take your Xbox 360 over a friends house but his television had different display settings? Where there is a easy way you can reset them for them to work on your friends television. First and foremost, remove if there any dics from the console. Turn the console off, then turn it back on using your xbox 360 remote. When its rebooting press and hold down the Y button then press and hold the right trigger. The video settings will be resetted.

• Play any media file, plus online videos on your Xbox 360.

There are numerous ways in doing this. I for one know a few ways to play media and music from your xbox 360. Simply have your xbox hooked up with the same connection as your computer. Go to Windows Media Player then select the Arrow under Library, a menu should open up and there should be an option in there that says “Media Sharing”. Click that and if you have your Xbox 360 connected, it should be there in the box that appears. Select that, click allow, then click okay. Another way is there is this free application called Tversity, that gets past video and audio restrictions. You’ll be able to play any type of format with this app. Again, you’ll need a PC on the same network, but it’s a simple matter of installing the program and having it scan the folders you keep your media in. It’ll replace the standard network file-sharing system Windows uses, but behaves pretty much the same way at the 360’s end. As well as that, it’ll convert unsupported files on the fly – though you’ll need a pretty beefy PC to do this with large video files, otherwise you’ll be waiting ages. You can also add online video URLs on the PC’s end, including Youtube.

• Use any HDMI cable and still get digital surround sound.

Though the newer 360s have an HDMI output for optimal video quality, they’ve built the ports in such a way that you can’t have the standard component/composite video cable, with its crucial optical audio output, plugged in at the same time as HDMI. Instead, you’re supposed to drop a frightening amount of money on the official HDMI cable with audio adapter. See the big plastic box at the end of the standard video cable that connects to the console? Wedge a knife or screwdriver into the join and twist to pop it off. The result looks messy, but is small enough to plug in alongside a standard, cheapo HDMI cable.