Tips and Tricks
Select Your Operating System:
WINDOWS XP
Set your PC clock automatically
If you have an Internet connection, Windows XP can automatically synchronize your clock to keep it accurate. Here's how:
- Right-click your clock, and then click Adjust Date/Time.
- Click the Internet Time tab. Click the Server down arrow, and then click time.nist.gov. Notice that Internet time synchronization is enabled by default.
- Click Update Now. Windows XP contacts the Internet time server and sets your clock. Click OK.
Now, your PC is connected to the Internet time server.
NOTE - If running XP in a business network environment, network policies may override these settings and force time synchronization with a designated time server on your network.
Use Windows XP to Shrink and E-mail Pictures
- In your My Pictures folder, open a folder containing the pictures that you want to send.
- Select one or more photos. If you hold down the Ctrl key, you can click to select additional photos in any order.
- In the File and Folder Tasks pane, click E-mail this file (or E-mail this folder's files, or E-mail the selected items if you chose more than one image).
- Next the Send Pictures via E-Mail dialog box appears. By default, the Make all my pictures smaller option is selected.
If you want to be more specific about how much smaller your pictures will be, click Show more options to view your choices. Make your selection from the list.
Click OK to continue. - Windows XP switches to your default e-mail program, creates a new message window, and attaches your pictures to the e-mail message. Add the recipient's e-mail address, type your message and then send the mail. Using this quick technique to send your photos to family and friends soon after the event is a sure way to keep everyone up-to-date on your life without filling their e-mail inbox with large image files.
NOTE: If Microsoft Office Outlook is your default e-mail program, the Send Pictures via E-Mail dialogue box as mentioned above may not appear. Instead, Outlook may immediately open a new e-mail message with your images inserted as attachments. You can still modify the size of your pictures before sending your mail by following these instructions...
Use Outlook to Shrink and E-mail Pictures.
- In an Outlook e-mail message with your images attached, click the Attachment Options... button located next to the Attach... field of the e-mail message.
- At the bottom of the Attachment Options task pane, select Picture Options to view the sizing options for your pictures. By default, Don't resize, send originals is selected. By clicking the down arrow you can view additional choices.
Select your choice, type in the recipient's e-mail address, type your message and then send the mail.
Keep Windows Media Player On Top
There's not much point in spending hours finding the perfect skin if you can't see it when other windows are open. You can keep your player handy by always leaving it on top of open windows:
- From within Windows Media Player, open the Tools menu and click Options.
- Click the Player tab.
- Select the Display on Top When in Skin Mode checkbox, and click OK.
Use Keyboard Shortcuts To Launch Applications
Because you probably only use five of your PC programs regularly, create keyboard shortcuts to launch them fast. Here's how:
- Right-click an application's icon and then click Properties
- Click the Shortcut tab, locate the Shortcut key text box, and type in a letter or number, or assign a function key. (For letters and numbers, Windows adds Ctrl-Alt to your shortcut.)
Now your favorite application is just a keystroke away.
Set your desktop PC background to a solid color
Tired of making decisions? If you're not interested in choosing a background picture that "reflects" you, don't put yourself through it--just pick a color for your background. Colors are easy.
- Right-click the desktop and click Properties.
- Click the Desktop tab in the dialog box and click None for your background.
- Pick a color from the Color button to the right and click OK.
Use Small Icons On Your Start Menu
After you install a few dozen programs, your Start menu can become very crowded. One way to reduce the clutter is to use small icons:
- Right-click the Start menu and click Properties.
- Click the Start menu tab and then click the Customize button.
- Click the General tab, click Small Icons, and then click OK twice.
Change your monitor resolution
Icons and text difficult to see? Want to get more information on your screen? Try changing your monitor resolution to a lower or higher setting and see what happens.
- Right-click the desktop, and then click Properties.
- In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab.
- Drag the Screen resolution slider to the left to decrease the resolution of your monitor, or to the right to increase it. Click Apply.
- If the Monitor Settings dialog box appears, look at your display. If you like the new resolution, click Yes. If not, click No, and return to step 3.
- Click OK.
WINDOWS VISTA
Eight ways to save time with Windows Vista
Windows Vista comes with loads of features that can help save you time, especially with tasks that you perform regularly. Try out these tips and see how much time you can save.
1 Send an email straight from your desktop
If there's someone you often send mail to, you can add a shortcut to your desktop to create a new email. Make a new shortcut and type in mailto: followed by your recipient's email address, for example mailto:supp...@hit-sol.com. Click Next, give the shortcut a meaningful name and then click Finish. The new shortcut will appear on your desktop, and double-clicking it will open up a blank email in your default email editor with the recipient's address already filled in.
2 Quickly check your network connection status from your desktop
You can create a shortcut to quickly check the status of your internet connection, saving you the effort of clicking through a number of windows and folders. Go to Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Manage network connections. Right-click on the connection you want to check the status of and select Create Shortcut. This will place a shortcut on your desktop, and when you double-click it you will be taken directly to the status page of your connection.
3 Create shortcuts to your favorite web sites
You can save time by having shortcuts to frequently visited web sites on your desktop. Browse to the page that you want quick access to, and then drag and drop the small icon on the left of the address bar to your desktop. Now all you need to do is double-click the shortcut to go straight to the page.
4 Get all your breaking news in one place with RSS feeds
If you have a number of news sites that you check regularly you can save time by subscribing to their RSS feed (click on the orange RSS icon on the web site). This sends their latest headlines directly to your RSS reader (such as Microsoft Outlook or Internet Explorer), allowing you to keep up to date with all your favorite sites in one place.
5 Use Start Search
Use the Start Search to quickly launch programs rather than trawling through your computer to get them. Below are some handy phrases to type into the search to bring up the application straight away. Depending on what you have installed on your computer you may be able to find other phrases to launch your programs with, so it is worth experimenting.
CMD Command prompt
DEV Device Manager
SYS System Restore
NETW Connect to a Network Projector
UPD Windows Update
PROG Default Programs
EVE Event viewer
6 Get the App Launcher sidebar gadget
There are a number of gadgets available from http://gallery.live.com/ that can help you speed up your computer use. The App Launcher gadget grants you fast access to files and folders by clicking on an icon that instantly launches them. It helps keep your desktop and Quick Launch free from clutter.
7 Install Launchy
Launchy is a powerful keystroke launcher, which is accessed by pressing Alt and Space bar. You can then type in the name of the application, file or web site you want to launch and press Enter. Launchy is intelligent enough to guess pretty accurately what you are looking for whilst you type, so by just typing goo then pressing Enter will open Google. You can download it for free at www.launchy.net
8 Use Task Scheduler to automate tasks
Save yourself a lot of time by using Task Scheduler to make Windows Vista automatically perform certain tasks. Type 'Task Scheduler' into Start Search and select what you want it to do, from defragmenting your hard drive to backing up your files, and when.
Create a Search Folder
Find files faster by saving your most common searches. Here's how:
- Go to the Search Explorer in Windows Vista by clicking Start and then Search.
- Design a search by typing your query in the search box. As you type, files from a variety of locations on your PC appear that match your text.
- Once the search is completed, on the toolbar click Save Search.
- In the File name box, type a name for the search, and then click Save. The search is saved in the Searches folders, which you can open by clicking the Searches link in the Navigation pane.
Change Windows Sidebar Behavior
If you right-click the Windows Sidebar and choose Properties, you can change where it appears on-screen and what it displays:
- To prevent it from starting automatically, uncheck the "Start Sidebar when Windows starts" box.
- Use the Arrangement section to keep the sidebar on top of all other windows, position it to the left of the screen, or even put it on a secondary monitor if you have two displays connected to your PC.
Get Pictures From Your Digital Camera to Your PC
The simplest way to do this is to:
- Start by connecting the camera to your PC with the camera's USB cable.
- Turn on the camera
- In the dialog box that appears, click Import using Windows to copy pictures to your computer.
- If you want, type a descriptive tag for your pictures in the Tag these pictures box so you can find them more easily later.
Print picture-perfect web content
Most websites are simply not formatted to fit cleanly on a standard piece of paper. With the new shrink-to-fit printing feature in Windows Internet Explorer 7, the edges of website pages no longer get cut off when sent to the printer.
View files the way you want
When you open a folder and see your files, you might prefer larger or smaller icons, or a way to see different kinds of information about each file. To make these kinds of changes, use the Views button in the toolbar of any folder.
Each time you click the Views button, the folder window changes the way it displays your file and folder icons, alternating between large icons, a smaller icon view called Tiles, and a view called Details that shows several columns of information about each file. If you click the arrow next to the Views button, you'll find even more choices.
