1. You can make changes to the way a page will print when using IE7.

Here's how:

1. Press the Alt key to bring up the “classic” menu in IE 7.
2. Go to File, then Page Setup
3. In the dialog box you can select Portrait or Landscape, change the margins and even print specific information by typing a variable into the header or footer boxes. For example, typing &w&bPage &p of &P in the header box denotes printing the Window title, right-aligned text and current page of blank number of pages. (See below for different variables that you can use).

1. Window title = &W
2. Page address (URL) = &u
3. Date in short format (as specified by Regional and Language Options in Control Panel) = &d
4. Date in long format (as specified by Regional and Language Options in Control Panel) = &D
5. Time (as specified by Regional and Language Options in Control Panel) = &t
6. Time in 24-hour format = &T
7. Current page number = &p
8. Total number of pages = &P
9. Right-aligned text (following &b) = &b
10. Centered text (between &b&b) = &b&b
11. A single ampersand (&) = &&

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2. Hide messages that you've already read.

Whether you are using Windows Mail, Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail, if your inbox is getting a little crowded you can hide messages that you've already read. Here's how:

Outlook Express

1. Right-click the toolbar and select the Views Bar.
2. Select Hide Read Messages in Views.

Windows Live Mail and Windows Mail

1. Go to View > Current View and select Hide Read Messages

Now you no longer see messages that you've already read.

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3. How to Use Windows Meeting Space for Collaboration Sessions

Windows Collaboration, or how it’s known today Windows Meeting Space, is a new element of Windows Vista intended to make it simple for PC users to work together (collaborate). With Windows Meeting Space, a PC user can share documents, applications and even the desktop. “Collaboration” sessions can take place over wired or wireless networks, even without the presence of an access point.

To begin Windows Meeting Space:

1. Click Start, All Programs, Windows Meeting Space.
2. Click “Yes” to the prompt dialog. If a UAC prompt appears, enter admin account password.
3. Enter the information requested on the new prompt dialog. (Note: Two people may be using the same display name during collaborating, so make sure u are collaborating with the right person.)
4. If a session is taking place, you’ll be asked if you want to join.
5. To create a new collaborating session, click Start A New Meeting and specify a password
6. Now you can now invite others to join your meeting, start a shared session, add a notes or handouts, etc.

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4. Dual Boot (multiboot) between Vista and Windows XP. 

If you dual boot (multiboot) between Vista and Windows XP, or another OS, you can choose which one will start when turning on your PC.
1. Open Computer
2. Click System Properties tab, and then click Advanced System Settings.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
4. Under System startup, in the Default operating system list, click the operating system that you want to use when turning on or restarting your PC.
5. Check Select the Time to display list of operating systems box, and select the number of seconds you want the list of operating systems to be displayed before the default OS starts. Default is 30 seconds, but that could be an eternity for some PC users.

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5. Independently control the sound level for each application in Vista.

Have you noticed the new cool feature in Vista? It allows you to independently control the sound level for each application that uses sound. For example, say you want to keep Windows system sounds at a mid range level, and Media Player at a lower level. You can change the volume level settings by opening the speaker volume application (lower/right hand side of notification area of task bar), click mixer, and individually change the volume level for any application that uses sound and is currently running. You can even mute the sound for each individual application.

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6. Vista Parental Controls let you decide how your children use the PC.

You can use Parental Controls to set the time limit that Vista Parental Controls let you decide how your children use the PC. You can use Parental Controls to set the time limit that your kid(s) can use the computer, the types of games they can play, the internet websites they can visit, and programs they can run.

By setting time limits on your kid's computer, you prevent them from logging on during certain hours. You can set different log on hours for every day of the week. If they are logged on when their allotted time ends, they will be automatically logged off.

You can also control the games your kids will be allowed to play. You can control access to games, choose an age rating level, choose the types of content you want to block, and decide whether you want to allow or block specific games.

You can restrict websites your kids visit, check age rating, indicate whether they'll be allowed to download files, and set up filters to block and allow content. You can even block or allow specific websites. Additionally, you can prevent your kids from running specific applications on their PCs.

And finally, you can setup an activity report so you can track what they are doing when using their PCs.

1. To run Parental Controls click Start and type Parental Control on search box.
Note that that you must set a password for accounts with administrative privilege to prevent others for turning Parental Control off.
2. Create an account if it has not been created.
3. Turn Parental Controls on.
4. Select whether or not you want an activity report.
5. On Windows Setting, select the controls for Internet, time limits, games and programs allow.

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7. MUSICAL REMINDER OR WAKE UP CALL

The Windows Task Scheduler is an extremely useful but surprisingly under used facility that allows you to launch programs or carry out routine tasks, like backups, at scheduled times.

Here’s a quick and easy way to get to know it, by programming it to play a tune, so you could use it as an alarm clock, to wake you up in the morning, or remind you to do something at a particular time.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate your way to the folder you use to store your MP3 or music files then open Task Scheduler by going to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools.

Now all you have to do is drag and drop your chosen MP3 or music file into the Task Scheduler window. Right click on the music file icon, select Properties then the Schedule tab and set your times and dates, click OK and it’s done.

Note that if you haven’t set a User Password for Windows it won’t work -- this is a safety feature -- so if you want to use Task Scheduler you will have to set one up, as you can’t leave the password field blank.

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8. A FIX FOR USB SECURITY HOLE IN XP.

USB pen drives have become a source of some concern for a lot of system administrators. There’s almost nothing to stop someone with one of these devices from using it to copy or steal data from PCs in offices, commercial premises, schools and colleges. In fact the problem was addressed in Windows XP Service Pack 2, which includes a new Registry key that stops data being copied to USB memory devices by classifying them as Read-Only media; this tip shows you how to use it 

Safety Warning! This tip is for advanced users as it involves editing the Registry. It’s not difficult but tinkering willy-nilly with it can cause problems. Even if you know what you are doing you should still set a new System Restore Point or backup the Registry. 

Now that’s out of the way open the Registry Editor (type 'regedit’ in Run on the Start menu) and work your way to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control 

If there is no StorageDevicePolicies subkey shown you will need to create one by right-clicking into the right-hand pane select New > Key; right click on the new key and Rename it. Double click the key to select it and from the Edit menu select New > DWORD Value and give the new value the name WriteProtect, press Enter then double-click the new value and set it to 1. Exit Regedit and reboot. To revert back to open access change the value to 0 or delete the key.

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9. WHERE’S MY XP CD KEY?

Several times a year I hear from distraught Windows users vainly trying to re-install their operating system only to find that they’ve lost their product registration key. The obvious thing to do is keep it in a safe place but if you’ve lost yours and are concerned that wouldn’t be able to carry out a reinstall then all is not lost. Simply download a little freeware utility called Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder  http://magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

 and it will display your product key and give you the option to save it to the Windows Clipboard, so you can make a copy of it.

Keyfinder works in all versions of Windows (from 98 onwards) and recent editions of MS Office.  

Here’s a quick bonus tip for XP users. If for any reason you ever need to find out if your copy of Windows has been activated simply type ‘oobe/msoobe /a’ (without the quotes) in Run on the Start menu and your PC’s activation status will be displayed.

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10. SETUP AUTOMATIC DEFRAG ON YOUR PC.

As you know over time the Windows filing system can become disorganised and this will eventually lead to a slow down and a reduction in performance. ‘Defragging’ the hard drive can restore order but most of us forget to do it regularly and leave it until the system has started to slow down.

Here’s a way to program Windows to automatically Defrag your drives once a month or every few weeks. Go to Start > Control Panel and click Performance and Maintenance then Scheduled Tasks (or just go direct to Scheduled Task in Windows XP) and double-click Add Scheduled Task.

This will launch the Scheduled Tasks Wizard. Click Next then the Browse button to C:\WINDOWS\system32, click defrag.exe and select Open. Now you can give it a name and set the timings for defrag to run and when you have finished check the box ‘Open Advanced Properties ’. If there’s more than one User Account on your PC you may want to set up a Password, otherwise leave the fields blank.

To finish off in the Run line add n the drive letter for the disc you want to defrag after the command, so it should look like this: C:\WINDOWS\system32\defrag.exe c: click OK and it is set.

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11. SINGLE CLICK SHUTDOWN FOR XP.

Here's the updated version of the popular shutdown shortcut for Windows XP. Just right-click onto an empty area of the desktop then select New then Shortcut from the menu that appears. Click the Browse button and navigate your way to: C:\Windows\System32\Shutdown.exe.

Click Next, give the shortcut a name and click Finish. Now right-click the new shortcut, select Properties and in the Target box, add the command line ‘switch’ -l (to log off), -s (to shut down) or -r (to reboot). A basic shutdown shortcut command line should look like this: 

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -s 

If you want to add a 3 second delay to the Shutdown then add the ‘-t xx’ switch, thus: 

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -s -t 03 

To avoid mistakes simply copy and paste the command into the Target box. Your can also add own your own comments or text in the Shutdown box with a  -c "Your text" switch.

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12. Super Speedy Shutdown For XP.

Some time ago I published a tip for forcing Windows to shutdown quickly, without worrying about exiting running programs and the other behind the scenes goings on that can make shutting down Windows XP a long and tedious business, and that’s without having to contend with unresponsive programs. Well, here’s another one, this time using a command entered in Run on the Start menu.

The command in question is shutdown.exe, and just by typing ‘shutdown -s’ will start the normal shutdown process, but we can beef it up a bit by adding some command line ‘switches’. These are extra instructions that tell it to do things in a certain way. Putting –f after the shutdown command, for example, tell it to force the shutdown, closing running applications without any warning. Here’s another one, adding –t xx tells your PC to wait a specified amount of time (xx represents time in seconds), before shutting down. So here is an example command, and feel free to modify the switches and time delay to suit your way of working: ‘shutdown –f –s –t 3’.

If you want to experiment here’s some other switches. –r restarts the computer, -c “text” lets you add a comment to the shutdown dialogue box (up to 127 characters) –l tells Windows to you to logoff the user.

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What’s the first thing you do when you see a baffling error message in Windows? If you are anything like me you’ll pick out the keywords and look it up on Google. That’s fine when it’s something simple but all too often error messages are long-winded and contain lots of gibberish, which are a pain to type into the search box The temptation, is to try and copy and paste the message, but you will find that this doesn’t work as you can’t highlight the words in an error box, but there is another way.  

Here’s a nifty little tweak that I came across the other day. From Windows 2k onwards you have been able to copy the text in error messages to the Windows Clipboard by pressing Ctrl + C, but Microsoft forgot to tell anyone. So the next time you get an indecipherable error message, just press Ctrl + C then open Notepad, WordPad, Word etc and press Ctrl + V, then you can highlight the text, and use it to search for a solution.

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14. Hidden XP Utilities

Deep inside Windows XP there’s all sorts of forgotten tools and utilities, some of which were carried over from earlier versions of Windows, or left behind by the developers. Here’s a few for you to be getting on with and all you have to do is type the name in Run on the Start menu (without the quotes of course). Most of them are undocumented, though a few of them have some Help files which might help you figure them out but as always you use and try them at your own risk

‘charmap’ – the Windows Character Map, the place to look for unusual characters

‘eudcedit’ – create or modify your own characters

‘perfmon’ – versatile system monitor, everything you wanted to know about your PC

‘rasphone’ – remote access phonebook, used to manage dial-up networking

‘telnet’ -- ancient PC to PC remote command and communications system

‘winchat’ – communications tool for exchanging messages over a network.
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15. AUTOMATICALLY CLOSE FROZEN PROGRAMS IN XP.

Okay, so worse things happen at sea, but don’t you just hate it when you shut down your XP Computer, only to be confronted with error message boxes telling you that ‘This

Program has stopped Responding’ and asking daft questions like what do you want to do about it?

This tip, known as a Forced Exit, gets rid of those irritating messages and force unresponsive programs to close automatically. However, it is for Experts only because it involves tinkering with the Registry, and if you try it you do so entirely at your own risk. Actually it’s quite safe and very easy so assuming that you know what you are doing, have set a new Restore Point or backed up the Registry, proceed to Run on the Start menu.  Type ‘regedit’ (less quotes) to open the Registry Editor. Work your way to HKEY_USERS\Default\Control Panel\Desktop, double click Desktop to open in the right hand pane and look for ‘AutoEndTasks’. Double-click the key and change the Value Data from 0 to 1,

Exit the Registry Editor and the change should be applied the next time you start Windows. You can undo the change by switching the Value Data back to 0 in the very unlikely event you run into problems. 

By the way, the same key also contains a control that determines how long Windows waits before declaring a program as unresponsive. ‘WaitToKillApp’ sets the timeout delay in milliseconds (the default is 2000, or 20 seconds) and you can change this setting to speed things up a bit.

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