Computer Tips & tricks

Spring must be arriving soon! I saw Robins in my yard this morning.

The application we found for you is freeware (real freeware) and once installed will give you back the functionality to "Print to PDF" from almost any application that has "File/Print" feature - including MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, etc. It's called Primo PDF. You can read more about and download Primo PDF from this location

How to change the amount of space reserved for System Restore In Xp" is great. Perhaps this tip will go hand in hand.

How to free up disk space by removing old restore points. Click start, all programs, accessories, system tools, clean up. The clean up wizard appears and scans the drive on which windows is installed (usually C ). After it scans click OK then "More options" "Remove restore points". Wizard asks if you want to remove all but the last restore point, if so click OK. Then confirm OK.

Microsoft says you cannot use the upgrade version of Windows Vista (DVD) to clean install Windows Vista on a formatted (clean) hard drive. They say you must buy (for about $100.00 more) the "Full" version of Windows Vista. This applies to all versions of Windows Vista: from Basic to Ultimate.

how they can clean install Windows Vista from the Vista upgrade DVD without paying you an extra $100.00 for the Vista Full Version DVD.

Here's how to clean install Windows Vista Upgrade on a clean hard drive without having to purchase the full version of Windows Vista. This applies to any version of Vista.

Since this requires several images and a step-by-step tutorial, we've created a tutorial on the Web. We suggest you bookmark the page if you're thinking about installing Windows Vista using the clean-install method. Don't worry! It's not hard to do, but it does take some time and a little effort. But in the end, you'll save about $100.00.

Visit this page to see our step-by-step tutorial on how to use the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD to clean install Windows Vista on a fresh, clean hard drive

To move your task bar

Hold down the left mouse button and grab the top edge of your taskbar. Now, while holding down the left mouse button, quickly pull the top edge up a little

Now if you pull the top edge up a little more, things get bigger and easier to read. Now you're beginning to get the idea, right?

Can you see how the programs in the Quick Launch toolbar are more easily visible (the Quick Launch Toolbar is just to the right of the Start Button. Also, notice how the programs, that are running, are more identifiable

If you really want to get fancy, you can turn your Taskbar into a sidebar by grabbing the top edge and actually jerking it quickly up and to the right edge of your screen.

This maneuver takes a little practice to do it, but once you get the hang of it you can move your taskbar to the left edge, right edge, or top of your screen. Most of us prefer it right where it is, at the bottom of the screen

DigiKnow that in Administrative Tools (for Category View - it's in Control Panel --> Performance and Maintenance -->Administrative Tools--->Computer Management. And for "Classic View" in Control Panel, just click "Administrative tools") there's a wealth of information about your computer? Sure is, and while this may not mean much to you if you don't have an inquiring mind, it might be the place to look if you are having problems with an application. The information stored here in log files could benefit a computer technician for example.

Let's check out an example. Under System Tools, there's a section called "Event Viewer". One of the items is "Anti-Virus". Let's look.

you'll see all sorts of information you can retrieve by clicking the various sections under "Computer Management", including some very useful information about your hard drives and removable storage as well.

While this tip is not going to make you a computer genius, we hope it does open up to you some perhaps previously unexplored areas of your computer. And that's how we all learn. Who knows? When you visit Computer Management and look through the various entries and logs, you just might stumble upon something you didn't know. And when you do, it's called "learning

The Safely Remove Hardware Icon is one of the most annoying things to me! I hate it. I never use it (or haven't yet) and it sits there day after day taking up space in my System Tray. But, no more. I've conquered this little nuisance and you can too! If you've added USB hardware to your computer you may have noticed a little icon in your tray (by the clock) called "Safely Remove Hardware". After awhile this icon will bother you. Well it does us anyway :). If it bothers you too, here's how you can safely remove (or hide at least) the pesky "Safely Remove Hardware" icon: Right click within the taskbar, outside of specific icons (at the margin edge). Select Properties. In the Customize Notifications dialog box, scroll down to the Safely Remove Hardware entry. Click the entry in the "Behavior" column for the icon. In the dropdown box, you can select to "Always hide" this icon. Click OK.

"Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Ditto allows you to save any type of information that can be put on the clipboard, text, images, html, custom formats, ....."

Ditto uses a small database to store clips (things you've pasted on the clipboard) and then allows you to access anything you've stored visually by showing you thumbnails of each item it stores in its database. Pretty cool - we think. We think you'll think so too! That's why we've chosen "Ditto" as our Freeware Pick Of The Week. Learn more? Download? OK Visit this page!

Site Of The Week, CrazyIllusions.com

When I download should I choose "RUN" (Open) or "SAVE"?

"Run" or "Open" (whether you see the option to "Open" or "Run" depends on what browser you are using or what version of Internet Explorer you're using) means you are installing from the web without having to download the exe file to you hard drive. This can save you time because that means you also don't have to locate the file after downloading, then double-click to install it; and then delete it when you're done. Downloading directly from the Web by choosing "Open" or "Run" is a good option when you you trust the site from which you are downloading.

"Save" means you are downloading the file to a folder on your hard drive. If you are downloading a program and you want to keep the file for later use or safe keeping (say you are on a dialup connection and it took you nineteen hours just to download a file; or if you were to purchase a downloadable program and wanted a backup copy of it) you would want to save the EXE file to your desktop or any other folder of your choice. Once, the download has completed, you'll need to double-click the file to install it. After you've installed it, you can then save the exe (the setup file) to CD, DVD, USB Flash Drive or some other location on your computer for safe keeping. If you later decide you don't want the file or no longer need it, you can delete it by right-clicking on it and choosing "Delete".