March 19th, 2010
By default, the Internet Connection activity icon, situated in the notification area (double computer icon), displays two tiny PCs with blue screens when connected. This simply informs the user that a connection has been established. What it does not say is whether data is being transferred between the host PC and the Internet.
To get the icon to ‘blink’ as it does in other versions of Windows, and thus enable you to see that data is being transferred, you need to enable the Activity Animation option. to do this proceed as follows:
1. Right Click on the Internet Connection icon in the notification tray.
2. From the Drop Down Menu, Click on the ‘turn on activity animation’ option.
3. Now when data is being transferred between your PC and the Web you should see the connection icon blink alternately as data is transferred.
Disable
If you want to return the Internet Connection Icon to its original none blinking state proceed as follows:
1. Right Click the Internet Connection icon.
2. From the Drop Down menu, Click the ‘turn off activity animation’ option.
Tags: Activity Animation, Disable, Enable, Internet Connection, Vista
Posted in Vista | No Comments »
March 18th, 2010
There are several ways to quickly show and access the desktop.
1. Press the Win+Spacebar keys. Let up on the spacebar but hold the Windows key down. When you let up on the Windows key, you will return to the previous open application.
2. Next to where the time and date are shown on the system tray, there is a small rectangular box. Clicking on this once will show the desktop. Clicking on it again will return you to your previous open application.
Tags: desktop, Spacebar, system tray, Windows 7
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
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 »
