New stuff is added at the bottom of the list. Latest revision : 9/02/2010
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Odds and Ends New stuff is added at the bottom of the list. Latest revision : 9/02/2010 |
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This is the place to find a growing collection of titbits gleaned from meetings, magazines, the web and other experiences. They are presented in a Question and Answer format. If you have any suggestions, send them. |
| Q | How do I copy what's on the screen into a document? |
| A | For the whole screen, press the PrintScreen key, usually up near the top-right corner of the keyboard. For the current window, not the whole screen, press Alt+PrintScreen. The screenshot is now in the copy buffer. Next, click in an open document and paste it in. (Right click and Paste). |
| Q | What does Alt+PrintScreen mean? |
| A | It means, hold down the Alt key and press the PrintScreen key. Nothing appears to happen, but it does, so just a quick tap of the PrintScreen key. |
| Q | My display of these pages in Explorer is not good. Can it be improved? |
| A | The font used in many of the pages is Comic Sans and some earlier Windows installations may not have this font installed. If it is not installed on your machine, a substitute font is used, and installing it should improve things. It is available if you click on the link, save it, unzip and install it. |
| Q | What is the purpose of the three different cursors in Internet Explorer? |
| A |
The Arrow cursor simply shows where the cursor is The I-beam cursor means you may highlight and copy the area The Hand-finger cursor indicates a link to another page - just click when the hand appears. |
| Q | Is there a simple way to jot down a few words like using a Post-It note? |
| A | Try using Notepad. Peter Moon suggests Go to Start, Programs, Accessories and right-click Notepad. Now choose Properties, the Shortcut tab, then Shortcut key. Click in the box next to shortcut key and press the F10 key. Now OK out of there. If all is OK, anytime you press the F10 key, Notepad will open ready for your jottings. If F10 clashes with another program key setting, try setting the shortcut key to ALT+F10. |
| Q | When I attach to the Internet my PC seems to run very slowly for some time. Is there a way to speed things up? |
| A |
The default setting for Windows update is to
download any new updates, so when you first attach to the Internet your PC
may become very preoccupied with downloading and so be very unresponsive
when you wish to do something else. It may be that you also have set
auto-downloading of your latest virus signature file. To speed things up, you can turn these options off, but remember that the onus is now on you to maintain Windows updates and your virus updates manually. If you have installed Service Pack 2, set the Automatic Updates to the Notify me ... option, then you can choose when you do the updates. Also remember, the critical updates for Windows are the most important; others are less vital. |
| Q | I want to open Windows Explorer in a particular drive or folder. How do I achieve this? |
| A | Look at the properties of the shortcut to Windows Explorer. the Target entry is %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe Add on a space then /e, c:\ Note the space in the middle! This will open Windows Explorer in the root of the C drive. Change c:\ to whatever you like and also modify the Comment if you like. |
| Q | Is there a best way to defragment my hard drive |
| A | Re-boot the machine holding down the F8 key. This will start the machine in Safe Mode. Choose Disc Degragmenter from the Accessories / System Tools menu. Re-boot when the operation is finished. |
| Q | How to stop Windows Messenger running at startup |
| A |
Turn on the Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run
option 1. Click Start, click Run, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK. 2. In Group Policy, expand Local Computer Policy, expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, and then expand Windows Messenger. 3. Double-click Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run, and then click Enabled. 4. Click OK. 5. On the File menu, click Exit to quit the Group Policy snap-in. |
| Q | How to open System Properties in Windows XP |
| A | Hold down the Windows key and tap the Break key. |
| Q | Is there a simple way to print my photos? |
| A | A simple, useful utility is built into XP Windows Explorer and Vista which many don't realise. Printing a set of photos can be achieved by right clicking a photo filename in the right hand window and then clicking Print. This leads to a Print Wizard dialog box. You can experiment and cancel at the last minute before printing if you wish. It offers different layouts of multiple photos on a sheet including a 35-photo thumbnail sheet labelled with filenames. |
| Q | How do I simply grab a section of what's on the screen and paste it into an email or document? |
| A | There's a simple utility called ZapGrab which enables you to define an area of your screen and grab it, then paste it into an email or open document. It's the bee's knees!. Click the link. |
| Q | How do I remove my USB device when Windows says I should not? |
| A | See USB Drives |