Entries tagged with tips - Channel 10

How To Speed Up Vista Boot Time on Dual-Core PCs

sarahintampa — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:04:00 GMT

Peter Provost posted a handy tip on his blog the other day that will be useful for anyone with a Vista computer that has a dual-core CPU. In Windows Vista, there’s a setting that lets you configure your PC to use both cores upon booting up (by default, it only uses one). You can change this setting in the System Configuration menu to get your PC to boot faster. Here’s how:

Go to Start, type msconfig and hit [Enter]
In the System Configuration Window, select the Boot tab
Click on Advanced Options
In the BOOT Advanced Options dialog, check the "Number of processors" check box, and choose 2 (or 4 if you have quad core) for the number of processors.
Click OK twice

That’s it! Now your Vista PC will boot up using both CPUs!

Make Your PC Wake From Sleep Automatically

sarahintampa — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:46:00 GMT

A lot of people these days are becoming more aware of the energy savings to be had by shutting down unused equipment when it’s not in use. And while it’s no problem to shut off the TV and the end of the evening a lot of people have trouble doing the same for the PC. This is mainly because it’s nice to have all your work on your computer right there where you left it when you return in the morning. Of course, this is what “sleep” mode is for – you can save energy without losing your place.

But wouldn’t it be nice if your computer knew when to wake up for you? Well, it can! Using the Task Scheduler (In Vista: Control Panel\System and Maintenance\Administrative Tools\Task Scheduler), you can make your PC wake up at the designated time you want just by having it run a simple task – like say, launching then closing the command prompt window.

For example:

Schedule a task that executes the command cmd.exe with command line arguments [/c “exit”] (without the []) and make sure to set the ‘Wake computer up to execute this task’ in the power options. Schedule the task for when you want your computer to wake up and you will never have to wait on it again.

(Thanks to Thomas Delrue for this tip!)

5 Microsoft Office Ribbon Tweaks You May Not Have Known

sarahintampa — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:00 GMT

Thanks to some internal emails that were going around recently, we’ve discovered some great Microsoft Office ribbon tweaks, tips, and customizations. I’ll confess, I hadn’t known about all of these, but they certainly are handy:

Hide the Ribbon: To hide the ribbon out of view leaving only the tab names showing, just double-click on any tab’s name.
Customize the Quick Access Toolbar: By default, the Quick Access Toolbar has the “Save,” “Undo,” and “Redo” buttons on it, but you can change that. To do so, go to any tab and right-click on the little pull-down menu symbol next to the window title on any Ribbon app. Here, you have the option to click on “Customize Quick Access Toolbar.” From the menu that displays, you can add and remove commands from the Quick Access Toolbar to suit your preferences. Add your most frequently used commands and you can hide the ribbon to get more screen real estate without losing access to the commands you use the most.
Find Hidden Commands: Because the Ribbon is meant to bring more simplicity to working with Office software, there are some infrequently used commands that are not available on the ribbon or are just harder to find. To bring these back into view, follow the steps above in #2 to customize the Quick Access Toolbar and you can get access to these commands once again. A couple examples of hidden commands include Excel’s pop-up calculator and PowerPoint’s Advanced Document Properties, which lets you see how big the file is.
Customize the Quick Access Toolbar on the Fly: No need to hunt down the little right-click menu, though, you can just right-click any command on the ribbon and choose “Add to Quick Access Toolbar.”
Scroll Through Tabs With a Mouse Wheel: If you have a mouse with a wheel, you can scroll through the tabs if the cursor is over the Ribbon – very useful for quick switching.

We would like to thank both Steven Levy and Alex Babanov for these great tips!

Media Center University – Part 2

brianjo — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:44:00 GMT

Check out the CE Installer Blog, where Mike Seamons continues his presentation of Optimizing Media Center for Entertainment. In this installment, Mike discusses the steps he takes to optimize Windows Media Center. He discusses removing all unnecessary software, installing Windows Updates and other configuration. Additionally, he discusses how to integrate Zune with WMC.

Topics covered include:

Removing all Unnecessary Files

Network and Sharing Tips

Cleaning the Desktop

Setting the Resolution, sounds, and screen saver

Setting Up Windows Media Player

Syncing everything with Zune

Default Content Removal

PCWorld Tells You How To Do Everything Faster

sarahintampa — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:05:00 GMT

A new article over at PCWorld.com offers up 22 tips on more efficient ways to perform common tech tasks - things like reinstalling Windows, backing up your data, creating a podcast, making a web site, sharing photos, and more. Here are a few sample tips from the article:

Add a Folder to Your Favorites: Drag the beloved folder from Windows Explorer to the Start button, and from there to the Favorites menu. In Windows XP, you also have the option of opening the folder and then clicking Favorites, Add to Favorites from inside the Explorer window.

Fix a Photo's Exposure: Microsoft's Windows Live Photo Gallery app improves on Vista's Photo Gallery program. Select Fix, Adjust Exposure In Windows Live Photo Gallery (which runs in both Vista and XP), and you'll get both Highlights and Shadows sliders and a histogram, as well as the familiar old Brightness and Contrast options.

Read the News: A number of free services can send you RSS feeds over e-mail. My favorite is SendMeRSS.com, which is so easy that you don't even have to register with the site, although doing so will make adding feeds simpler. Just enter the URL for the RSS feed you want, type in your e-mail address, and click Feed. From then on, new items will automatically appear in your inbox.

Email Large Files: My rule of thumb: Never e-mail more than 1MB of content without the express permission of the recipient. As an alternative, try YouSendIt, a brain-dead-simple take on the FTP transfer. The service is free for any file under 100MB, and individual files can be downloaded up to 100 times. You don't even have to sign up and enter a password (though the service offers additional features if you do, and even more if you pay). Just enter both e-mail addresses, point to the file, and click the Send button.

There are eighteen other great tips like those above, so you're sure to discover some tip, idea, or software app to use that you didn't already know about before.

Customizing Vista's Search

sarahintampa — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:49:00 GMT

Remember how I told you that you could add Wikipedia to your choices in Windows Vista's default search? Well, there are other ones you can add, too, like these:

Live Search: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=%+

IMDB: http://search.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=%+

Dictionary Search: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=%+

Now what I need to know is how I can use all of them - the gpedit.msc section (see earlier instructions on this) only lets you pick one. I want them all! Any ideas?

MSN Environment Launched

sarahintampa — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:59:00 GMT

For eco-warriors and environmentalists, there's a new channel on MSN that will be of interest: MSN Environment. On this site, you can read news and blogs, watch videos, get eco-friendly tips, plus get access to tools like a carbon calculator and a water usage meter. The site is only on MSN UK (for the U.S., we have MSN Green instead), but there are certainly features on the site that will appeal to everyone interested in these issues.

If you want to follow various sections of MSN Environment, there are several RSS feeds to choose from, including:

Environment Blog: Matthew Yeomans is the co-founder of Custom Communication an online media consultancy that provides environmental reporting. He reports for MSN on The Climate Report blog.
Environment Features: All the feature stories from MSN Environment Editor including analysis.
Environment Photos: All the photo stories from MSN Environment Editor including analysis.
Environment News: Updated throughout the day with breaking and feature news stories
Environment Videos: Stand alone features from VideoJug
Green Living : Reports on Green Living

(via vnunet)

Office 2007 "Legacy" Mode

sarahintampa — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:40:00 GMT

No, it's not really a secret setting. It's an add-in for Office 2007 that will finally give IT admins relief from that one user who resists change in all possible forms. The one that reminds you every day that how they had everything the way they liked it in Office 2003 and why did you have to go and change it on them? Who cares that Office 2007 offers awesome new features, they want it to be exactly the same. Had enough? Just download the Ribbon Customizer, an Office add-in that is available in a free starter edition or a paid Professional Edition. Using the tool's built in "Classic UI Tabs" you can turn back time and make Office 2007's ribbon turn into Office 2003's classic look.

However, it would be wrong if I didn't mention that Ribbon Customizer can do a lot more than just enabling a legacy mode of sorts - the tool can also be used for redesigning the Office 2007 ribbon UI in any way you see fit. You can add, remove, and edit tabs, reorder them, create groups, move commands around, make customized tabs you can turn on and off, and much more. The Ribbon Customizer is available here if you want to download and try it for yourself.

(via Aaron Tiensivu)

Find Cheaper Gas on MSN

sarahintampa — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:38:00 GMT

The price of gasoline just seems to be going up and up and up, but there are online tools to help you find the lowest prices in your area. One of these tools is available right from MSN Auto. On the gas prices page, MSN Auto displays the prices for gas in your zip code by using data that is updated daily via the Oil Pricing Information Service (OPIS). More than 90,000 stations across the country are covered so you can find the best prices. (via Click)

ShareMaster Gadget for WHS

sarahintampa — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:45:00 GMT

The Home Server Hacks blog has just announced a new Windows Vista Sidebar gadget just for Windows Home Server users. This gadget, called "ShareMaster for Home Server," gives you quick access to the Windows Home Server's standard shared folders (Music, Photos, Public, Software, Users and Videos). The gadget has six icons on it that correspond to those six shared folders on the server. Clicking an icon on the gadget will open up that network shared folder. What's even cooler, though, is that you can drag and drop files onto the icons themselves to automatically move them from your PC to your Home Server. That's handy! This is definitely a must-have tool for any Windows Home Server owners. You can download the gadget from here. (image via Home Server Hacks)

Search Wikipedia from Vista's Start Menu

sarahintampa — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:48:00 GMT

If you're a fan of Wikipedia, you're going to love this Windows Vista hack I found on ITworld.com. You can add a "Search Wikipedia" option from the Vista's Instant Search box that's on your Windows start menu. It's really not that hard, if you are familiar with using the Local Policy editor. Here are the steps:

Press Windows Key + R and type in gpedit.msc, click "OK"
Open the User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Instant Search\Custom Instant Search Internet Search provider policy setting.
Enable the policy setting, type Search Wikipedia in the first textbox and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%w in the second textbox, and click OK.
Open a command prompt and type gpupdate/force to immediately apply the new policy setting.

After you do that, you'll see 3 search options: in addition to "Search Everywhere" and "Search the Internet", you'll now see "Search Wikipdedia," too! How cool is that?

This probably works for all languages, if you substitute "en" with your country's code.

Tip - Make Command Line Easier to Read

sarahintampa — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:31:00 GMT

I just saw this tip for developers over on the IEBlog, but I think it's safe to say that is handy for anyone who uses command line whether they are developers, net admins, or just your average geek. The tip involves how to turn on the Consolas font, a ClearType font) for use in the CMD.EXE window. You don't get as many lines on a screen, but this font is much easier to read. Make the change is really not too hard, just follow these steps below:

Launch the command prompt (in Vista, launch it with elevated privileges)
Type in the command window: reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont" /v 00 /d Consolas
Logoff
When you log back in, Consolas will be an option in the “Command Prompt” Properties for you to choose.

The IEBlog has screenshots showing the before and after so you can see what a difference this makes. Save your eyes and make the switch!

Startup Faster with Startup Delayer

sarahintampa — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:03:00 GMT

By now, most of you have heard about editing your startup options via msconfig, but that process involves checking or unchecking programs from running at startup altogether.

However, you might have quite a few programs that you do need to run, like your online backup or your anti-virus auto-updating program. Unfortunately, some of these programs can take a lot of time to start up when you first turn on your computer. This is where Startup Delayer can help.

Startup Delayer takes a different approach than msconfig. Like msconfig, you can use the program to enable and disable programs from running, but you can also use it to have programs run after startup at a designated time, by customizing the intervals at which they begin to run.

To do so, you just go into Startup Delayer's options and specify how many seconds after Windows has started up before running each program.

Startup Delayer is free and can be downloaded from here. (via Download Blog)

Where's My "No To All?"

sarahintampa — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:01:00 GMT

Have you ever been copying a whole lot of files and gotten a prompt asking if you want to overwrite? You'll usually be presented with four options: Yes, No, Cancel, or Yes to All. But sometimes the answer is going to be "No to All," however, that option isn't available as a button. But a tip on DownloadSquad reminds us that you can answer "No to All" quite easily - just hold down "Shift" and click "No." This is one of those "how did I live without it?" kind of tips - if you already knew this, it's no big deal, but if you just found out, you're going to be thrilled, which is precisely why I had to share.

Group Your Taskbar Windows with Reg Hack

sarahintampa — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:55:00 GMT

The Lifehacker blog offers up a great little registry hack for grouping similar items on your taskbar. You may have noticed that the taskbar only groups items when you have launched enough windows to fill the taskbar. However, if you want to group similar programs all the time, a simple registry hack does the trick. Go to:

HKEY_CURRRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced

Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named TaskbarGroupSize at that location, setting the value to 2 or higher to set the number of programs to activate the grouping.

Get Drop Shadows in Your Screen Capture

sarahintampa — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:40:00 GMT

The Digital Inspiration blog posts a great tip on how to capture Vista's Aero Glass drop shadow when you're doing a screen capture without having to buy any expensive software.

The trick is to put the window you want a screenshot of in front of notepad. Then do a print screen or Vista's Snipping Tool to take the picture and save the file. Next, open the file in any editing program like Windows Photo Gallery and crop out the parts you don't need.

Quick, painless, and best all of free! Nice tip!

Passwordbird Helps You Make Passwords

sarahintampa — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:35:00 GMT

A new site called Passwordbird helps you come up with a password that's easy for you to remember, but hard for others to guess. To use the site, you first enter in a name that's special to you, then a special word, and then a special date, and the result is an automatically-generated password based on those entries. If you don't like the password, you only need to click once and the site will generate a new one for you. You can keeping clicking to cycle through several different choices until you find a password that suits you.

Getting a List of Filenames in Vista is Easy!

sarahintampa — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:30:00 GMT

Remember what a challenge it was to generate a list of filenames of all the files in a folder on your PC? In XP, you had to go to the command prompt and type in something like DIR /B /ON *.* > filelist.txt. (That command sorts them in order). In Vista, it's so much easier. Now, all you have to do is select the files, right-click, and choose "Copy as Path." Paste the list anywhere. Of course, this does copy the entire path to the file, but Find-and-Replace can quickly take care of that. It's the little things like this that really make my day. (Thanks to AppScout for reminding me of this!)

Top 5 things you didn't know you could do with your Vista Media Center PC

EnglishBloke — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:27:00 GMT

Here I present my top 5 things you can do using your Vista Media Center PC.

Enjoy! I hope you like this one guys!, Let me know what you think on the forums. Take it easy!

And if you like my video, make sure you rate me and digg it :)

How To Search Your PSTs with Vista's Built-In Search

sarahintampa — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:32:00 GMT

Do you archive your email to PST files (maybe due to a corporate policy limiting your mailbox size)? If so, you know that even though it's archived, you will still need to access those old emails from time to time. If you don't want to keep all your archives open in your Outlook, there is another way...if you use Windows Vista. With Vista's built-in search option, you can specify that you want PSTs to be indexed (this is not turned on by default). It's pretty easy to set this up, just follow these steps:

Go to the Control Panel
Choose "Indexing Options"
Click on the "Advanced" button
Click on the "File Types" tab
Check the checkbox next to "PST" to include it in the search
Select the bullet next to the option "Index Properties and File Contents"
Click OK and OK again on the message that appears.

You're done! Now you can use Vista's built-in search to find that email you need!

Live Search työkalu tarjoaa nopean tavan omiin eri palveluiden hakuihin.

jukkaw — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:39:00 GMT

Live Search työkalupalkki tarjoaa näppärän tavan lisätä omia hakukohteita helposti käytettäväksi.

Olemassa olevia hakupalvelun tarjoajia voidaan helposti lisätä hakupalkkiin valitsemalla haluttu palvelun tarjoaja listasta. Lisäksi erittäin näppärä ominaisuus on luoda omia hakupalvelu, jolloin voidaan lisätä mikä tahansa url parametrejä tukeva hakupalvelu pikahaun piiriin.

Hakupalveluiden lisääminen on todella näppärää, kuten alla on kuvattu.

Työkalun alasvetovalikosta valitaan lisättävien tarjoajien haku(Find More Providers...),

josta saa helposti lisättyä valmiita palvelun tarjoajia hakupalkin hakukohteisiin.

Näppärää, eikö vain?

Mielenkiintoisena ominaisuutena on kustomoitujen hakupalveluiden lisäys mahdollisuus, jossa voidaan parametrien avulla ottaa käyttöön mieleisen palvelun hakuominaisuudet - suoraan työkalusta käytettäviksi.

Jos esimerkiksi halutaan käyttää webistä löytyvää ilmaista sanakirjapalvelua, voidaan sen hakutoiminnallisuudet tuoda yhden painalluksen taakse.

Uuden palvelun lisäyksessä tulee syöttää sivuston haku url siten, että hakukentän arvoksi laitetaan TEST -teksti, jolloin tässä esimerkissä URL tekstiksi tulee: http://www.ilmainensanakirja.fi/trans?Q=TEST&Q2=&P=12

Lisäksi hakupalvelulle annetaan tietysti nimi.

Tämä url vastaa sanakirjasivuston osoitetta, joka tuottaa parametrinä annetun sanan käännöksen englannista suomeen.

Kun tiedot on syötetty, hyväksytään lisäys.

Haettaessa valitaan vain haluttu palvelu, jota halutaan haussa käyttää ja se on siinä.

Palveluja voipi sitten olla niin työpaikat, keskusteluryhmät, autot, yms, mitä sitten tuleekin tarpeeseen.

Photojojo - A Site for Photo Enthusiasts

sarahintampa — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:16:00 GMT

OK, I'm not a huge fan of the goofy name, but this website/newsletter has a lot of cool stuff that makes it worth checking it. Photojojo is primarily a newsletter (and they house their newsletter archives on their website) where you can find tutorials, do-it-yourself projects, camera/camera accessory reviews, contests, and much more. Some recent posts on Photojojo include a customizable version of the Monopoly board game, where you can add your own photos; a how-to post on making a doggie cam; tips on de-pixelizing your photos using VectorMagic; and a handy how-to on removing extra people from your photos. Whether you're just getting into photography or already an enthusiast, you can learn a lot the Photojob site. There's even a store where they have cool photo-related tools and gifts and a forum where you can chat with other shutterbugs like yourself.

How I Use Outlook - 7 Tips

sarahintampa — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:02:00 GMT

There are so many things you can do with Outlook, but I have to admit, I've never fully explorered all its features. However, the more I "live" in my Outlook at work, the more I've become obsessed with finding new and useful ways to get things done as efficiently and quickly as I can. On that note, here are a few Outlook tips I've discovered that have been making my work life easier.

1. The ClearContext add-in - every since someone told me about this add-in, I've been using the heck out of it. Although I can only afford the free version, I've found it unbelievably useful for categorizing my mail. Since I had been using a folders system prior to the Outlook 2007 upgrade, I didn't feel much like redoing this system just to use Outlook 2007's color-coded categories. Instead, I use a mashup of ClearContext labels and Outlook cateogries. ClearContext lets me label my mail and these labels are linked to an Outlook category list. As I visually scan my email, Outlook's color-coded categories help me find what I'm looking for fast. When it's time to move an email from the Inbox to its category folder, I just hit the "File Msg" button on the ClearContext toolbar and the message archives itself to the appropriate folder. (Another option for filing is SpeedFiler, which I hear is good, too).

2. Natural Language - I've been using Outlook 2007 for many months now, but I just discovered this feature thanks to a tip I read online. The new version of Outlook lets you enter appointments on your calendar using natural language. Instead of using the drop-down box to pick a date, you can type in real expressions like "day after tomorrow," "one week from today," "two months from today," "three days from now," and much more. You can also use expressions like "today + 3 days" and Outlook will figure that out, too. Finally, you can type in the names of holidays and use them in expressions like "the day before Christmas."

3. Outlook Calendar on the desktop - this software lets you pin the Outlook calendar to your desktop. The calendar stays there all the time so you can always see what's upcoming. It's not just a view of your calendar either, it's the real Microsoft Outlook calendar, so you get all its functionality, like direct editing, drag and drop of files, etc. Awesome.

4. Search Folders & Favorites - how did I live before Search Folders? Search Folders let you create virtual folders based on certain criteria. For example, you could make a folder of email from your boss you categorized as "Important" or a folder of your emails that have attachments. Even better, add these Search Folders to your Favorite Folders list and hide your Mail Folders list so that all you see is your Favorites. You'll be surprised how rarely you'll need to view your "real" folders.

5. Fast Email Searches - If you use Outlook 2007 on Vista, you have Vista's killer search built into Outlook. However, at work, we're still on XP. No worries though...you can download Windows Desktop Search for Windows XP like I did and experience the glory of fast searches. With either Vista or Desktop Search, results are displayed as soon as you start typing in text.

6. Form Emails - Using templates, you can save standardized emails so you don't have to type the same thing over and over again. I use forms for things like emailing a new user's login information to their supervisor or emailing someone a note letting them know their issue was input as a helpdesk ticket. Creating your own form is easy - just write the email, then go to File --> Save As, and choose "Outlook Template (*.oft)" from the drop-down box. The email is saved as a template. Next time you want to use that form, open it by going to Tool --> Forms --> Choose a Form. Change the drop-down box to "User Templates in File System" and then pick the template you created.

7. Minimize to Tray - I'm surprised how many people don't know how to minimize Outlook to run in the System Tray. This is an absolute necessity (it should be the default!). Right-click on the Outlook icon in the Notification Area (next to the clock). In the menu that displays, select "Hide When Minimized."

Dual-Monitor Wallpaper

sarahintampa — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:09:00 GMT

If you have dual monitors, or perhaps a notebook with an extra monitor attached, you may have noticed that you can't set the wallpaper on a per-screen basis. If your monitors are different sizes, this leaves you with one monitor where you wallpaper won't completely fill the screen. By using a dual monitor utility like DisplayFusion, you can set different wallpaper images for each desktop or you can stretch an image across your desktops. If you're going to be stretching images, some of the best photos you can use are panoramic photos (like those you made with Windows Live Photo Gallery beta - check out this how-to screencast.) You can also snag some dual screen wallpapers from this gallery. DisplayFusion is a free download. For more features, like the ability to extend the taskbar across multiple monitors, hotkeys, keyboard shortcuts, and unified screensavers, you may want to shell out the $40 for UltraMon instead. (via LifeHacker)

Outlook 2007 Tip: Preview PDFs Automatically

sarahintampa — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:48:00 GMT

Did you know that Outlook 2007 can be configured to allow you to preview PDF attachments automatically? With this handy tip from the Living-With-Outlook blog, you can easily set up your Outlook to allow PDF previewing right in the Outlook's Preview Pane. To get started, you first need to download the latest version of Adobe's Acrobat Reader (currently version 8.1). After it's installed, restart Outlook, and locate an email that has a PDF attached. You should now be able to preview the file just like you would any other previewable file - just click the PDF icon in the Reading Pane and your PDF will display to the right of your message list. Longer PDFs will be scrollable using the scroll bar or arrow keys. When you're finished previewing the attachment, one more click will easily return you to the email message.