March 17th, 2010
The notification area is situated at the bottom right of your screen and is the home to the clock and a number of other application icons.
These icons usually represent programs that run when Windows starts. An example is Anti virus software and third party Firewall applications.
If you have a number of applications running at Start up the notification area can become somewhat overcrowded. While it is not always possible, or wise, to prevent the applications from launching when Windows starts, you can make the notification area somewhat less cluttered by hiding many of the icons you don’t regularly use.
To do this proceed as follows:
1. Right Click your mouse in the Notification Area.
2. from the Drop Down Menu that appears Click on the Customize Notification Area option.
3. In the Customize Notification icons window, Click on the item you wish to change the behavior of.
4. In the Behavior column, Click on the Down pointing Arrow to the Right of the behavior dialogue box.
5. From the drop Down menu, Select the behavior you want to attribute to the relevant icon. The options are:
-Hide when inactive (recommended)
-Hide
-Show
6. After making your selection, Click OK to set the behavior for that icon.
Tags: Behavior, Icons, Vista Notification Area
Posted in Vista | No Comments »
March 16th, 2010
If you are the only user on the computer and are not worried about someone else having access to it, you can configure Windows7 to automatically log you on.
1. Click on the Start button
2. Type in netplwiz and press the Enter key
3. Uncheck User must enter a user name and password to use this computer
4. Click on the Apply button at the lower right corner
5. You will then be shown a dialog box where you can enter in the name and password of the account you want to have automatically log on.
6. Simply fill it with the correct information
7. Click on the OK button.
Tags: Automatically, Logging, Windows 7
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
March 15th, 2010
There are two basic ways of creating a new partition. The first is through Disk Management from within the Vista operating system itself or, alternatively, there is a way of creating a new partition using the Vista DVD.
To create a new partition using the Vista DVD proceed as follows:
1. Switch on your PC.
2. Quickly insert the Vista DVD into your CD/DVD-ROM drive.
3. A message will appear asking you to ‘Press any key to boot from CD/DVD.
4. Press any key.
5. A black screen will now appear with a progress bar along the bottom. The legend say’s ‘Windows is loading files’.
6. After the files have been loaded the Language screen will appear.
7. Select your language from the list and press Next.
8. At the Installation screen press the Install Now button.
9. The product key window will now open.
10. Type your product key number into the available box and then press OK.
11. The End user License Agreement now appears. You ‘must’ accept this to continue.
12. The next screen to appear is ‘Where do you want to install Windows’.
13. At the bottom of this window you will see an option marked Drive options (Advanced), click on this option.
14. In this Window select ‘unallocated space’ from the list of partitions and then click New.
15. A size box will now appear under the New option.
16. Type the size of the new partition into this box (or simply accept the default), then click the Apply button.
17. The new partition will now be created.
Tags: Disk Management, DVD, Partition, Vista
Posted in Vista | No Comments »
March 12th, 2010
Windows 7 hides certain files so that they are not able to be seen when you exploring the files on your computer. The files it hides are typically Windows 7 System files that if tampered with could cause problems with the proper operation of the computer. It is possible, though, for a user or piece of software to set make a file hidden by enabling the hidden attribute in a particular file or folder’s properties. Due to this it can be beneficial at times to be able to see any hidden files that may be on your computer.
To enable the viewing of hidden and protected system files in Windows 7 please follow these steps:
1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button in the lower left corner of your screen that has a Windows flag on it.
3. Click on the Control Panel menu option.
4. When the control panel opens you will see a screen with nine categories.
5. Click on the Appearance and Personalization link.
6. You should now be in the Appearance and Personalization control panel.
Click on the Show hidden files and folders option.
7. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
8. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.
9. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).
10. Press the Apply button and then the OK button.
You will now be at your desktop and Windows 7 will be configured to show all hidden files.
Tags: hides, System files, Windows 7
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
March 11th, 2010
While System restore is a God send when problems strike, it can also have a downside. That downside is, quite simply, Disk Space. Every restore point takes up ever more valuable disk space, thus reducing available space required for other files/applications.
System restore is clever enough to realize that, once its space allocation (usually 12% of available disk space) has been reached it needs to start deleting some of its restore points and replacing them with later ones. However, there comes a time, assuming your PC is working satisfactorily; that it is much simpler to delete all restore points and start from scratch. Alternatively you may be the type of person that keeps an incremental backup image of your hard drive and are therefore not in need of system restore.
If you need to clear all system restore points (for whatever reason) or you simply don’t want to use system restore (not a good idea unless you have an up to date backup image of your hard drive), you need to turn system restore off. To do this proceed as follows:
1. Click the Start Button.
2. From the Start menu click Control panel.
3. In Control Panel click the System Icon.
4. On the Left of the System properties window you will see a list of Tasks, click on the System protection link.
5. In the System Protection window remove the ‘Tick’ mark from beside the drive you want to disable system restore on.
6. A message will now appear asking: ‘Are you sure you want to turn System restore off’.
7. Press the Turn System restore Off button.
8. System Restore will now be turned off permanently on that particular drive.
9. To re-enable system restore just click your mouse in the box next to the drive you require system restore to monitor ( a tick will appear in the box), the click the Apply button and system restore will resume monitoring the drive.
Tags: System Restore, Vista
Posted in Vista | No Comments »
