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Microsoft Windows in one of the most popular operating systems in the world. However, that does not make it the most stable and as such requires almost constant tweaking and fixing. A lot of the tweaks you can do on your own.

A great deal of information about Windows can be found at Microsoft's Web site

Disclaimer

This is important. Playing with your Windows (or any other Operating system) can have very serious consequences. changing and deleting things out of your Windows folders can cause your computer to stop running of fail to start. Please make sure you do a back up of anything you are going to change BEFORE you change it. If your are not sure or don't feel comfortable messing with your Operating System then DON'T.

Quick tips

Screen Saver

If you need to tweak your screen or screen saver. "Right" Click on an empty spot on your Desktop and select Properties from the resulting dialog box. You will be presented with a number of tabs. Select the era that you want to go to by clicking on a tab. 

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Instant Explorer

Hold down your Shift key while double clicking on your "My Computer" icon to start Windows Explorer. Holding down your Alt key while double clicking on "My Computer will bring up your system properties dialog box. 

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Add Remove Programs

To properly remove programs from your system use "Add/Remove Programs" located in your control panel. Go to Start-> Settings-> Control Panel and double click on the Add Remove Programs icon and look for the program you want to get rid of.  

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Defragmenting (A cross over tip)

This relates to both the Windows operating system and hardware. As you use your computer your files will grow in size. In the natural order of things files will follow one another on your hard disk. But, what happens if there is no room between the end on one file and the beginning of another? Windows just sticks the extra bit of file at the end of the file system. The next time you use that file or program Windows will load what it can then go looking for the rest of the  "Fragmented" bits.  As a result your system will appear to run slower than it used to. Microsoft in its wisdom provides a solution to this problem by giving you a program called "Disk Defragmenter" which can be found by going to: Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools and clicking on Disk Defragmenter. 

If you have never run this program before and your disk is badly fragmented you may have a wait on your hands as this process can take several hours. I start the program running and let it do its work over night so as not to interfere with my internet time. 

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Automate your processes

Want to let Windows do your work for you? A good way to have this happen is to use the Task Scheduler located on your task bar. 

Double Click the Icon that looks like a small calendar with a small round clock in the bottom right hand corner. It should be the first icon in the system tray. If you hold you mouse over the icon it should say "Task Scheduler is Ready". Once the program is open just click on Add Scheduled Task and follow the wizard. A good one to add is the Disk Defragmenter program. I have mine start every Tuesday night at 11 PM.

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What is the Taskbar and how do I resize it?

A:
See your Start button? It, along with any running programs, sit on your taskbar. It's there so you can quickly see what programs you have running and switch between them. If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 or better installed, it can also have icons, address bars, and other cool stuff on it.

To resize it, hover your mouse pointer over its edge. Your mouse pointer should turn onto a double arrow. Now, click and hold your left mouse button while dragging the taskbar to the size you want.

As you drag it down, you'll get another "level" you can work with. You
can drag excess toolbars to this new level using their little "handles"
(short vertical lines on the toolbar's right hand side).

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Want to make some wallpaper? Here's how:

OK, First, you'll need to know your screen resolution. If you don't know what it is, follow the 3 steps below.

1. Right-click the desktop, select Properties from the resulting menu.

2. Head to the Settings tab. You'll see your resolution in the lower right hand area. It's probably something like 800x600 or 640x480. It could be higher.

3. Write your resolution down.

OK, now that you know your resolution, you need to scan in your photograph (horizontal pictures work best). Since I have no idea what size photograph you're scanning, I'm going to say use a 150 to 300 DPI scan. The smaller the photograph, the higher you'll need the DPI to be (I would scan in a 4x6 around 200 DPI, to allow for a little cropping). You should be able to adjust this with your scanning software.

Next, using your imaging software, resize the image (resize commands are *usually* found under the edit menu) to the same resolution as your screen. The horizontal number being the higher one.

For example, if I was using an 800x600 screen resolution, I would set my horizontal size to 800 and my vertical size to 600.

Keep in mind that if your image isn't proportional to your screen, it may get distorted when you resize it. If that is the case, it's probably going to need to be cropped *before* you re-size it.

So, first try the resize. If it doesn't look good, hit your Edit menu, Undo.

If the image is horizontal, you'll probably need to crop off the sides.
If it's vertical, you'll need to crop off the top and the bottom.

That's it. Obviously, if you want to do some image enhancement, now's the time. If you're done, save the file as a BMP image and put it in your C:\Windows directory. Then go back to your wallpaper setup screen and scroll down the files until you see it. Set it as your wallpaper and you're done!

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First, what exactly does it mean to "backup" your files?

To backup simply means to copy files to another disk. This can be in the form of using a program designed to do backups or just doing a straight copy from your computer to a floppy (probably a lot more than one floppy), a zip disk, or CD-RW.

For a zip disk, just copy and paste the files you want to save onto the disk. For a CD-R or CD-RW, use your CD burning software. (Note that most CD burning software and Zip drives come with some kind of backup utility you can use if you like).

If all your files will fit on a single CD or Zip disk, then you're in good shape just copying your files straight to it. If your files are too large, you're probably better off using a backup utility, since they can "split" your files up automatically and most can even compress them.

That's really all there is to it. You just take the files you want to be sure to save and copy them to a disk or CD.

One question that seems to come up all the time is. "If I do a re-format and re-install every year or two, how can I be sure I get all my important files?"

I use to have a terrible time with this one. I would hunt through every folder on my hard drive searching for my data. And let me tell ya, I would still miss stuff and lose it.

Well, a long time ago, I decided to keep any file I create (documents) or want to save (i.e. downloaded software) in the My Documents folder. Then when I go to backup my info, I know it's all in one place. I back up My Documents and it's a done deal. I have it all.

I also advocate putting sub-folders into the My Documents folder. You can do this from most "Save As" dialog boxes by clicking the "New folder" icon. You can also do it from Explorer by opening the My Documents folder, right-clicking on a blank area, then selecting New, Folder from the resulting menu.

Here I am making a new folder (the arrow there, that's me :-):

Oh, one other thing to remember -

Make sure you backup your e-mail and Favorites too! You can set current versions of Outlook Express (and many other e-mail clients) to save your e-mail to a specified folder, like the My Documents folder. Doing that will insure you at least keep your e-mail.

See the link below for more on saving your e-mail:

http://www.worldstart.com/tips/savingemail.htm

As for the Favorites, those you'll have to work a little harder at. They are usually found under your C:\Windows folder. XP users will find them under the Documents and Settings area.

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 CDs

This might turn into a page of it's own but for now...

Q: What is the difference between CD-R and CD-RW?

A: Well, basically CD-R stands for "Compact Disk - Read Only" which means that you are able to record to this media only once with some exceptions (which I will get to in a minute) CD-RW on the other hand stands for "compact disc -- read write " which means that you can both read and write to the disk many times . 

In another words CD-R media is for keeping permanent records such as music or data archives.  CD-RW media is for keeping large files such as data back up its that you would like to refresh some time to time .   

Q: How do I record over a CD-RW? I tried to record over it, but that didn't work it says to make it a blank CD first.

A:We all know the difference between a CD-R and a CD-RW right? Once you fill up a CD-R, that's it, but a CD-RW allows you to re-write data and use the disk over and over again.

Keep in mind, though, that unlike a floppy or Zip disk, you cannot erase just one file from a CD-RW, but must reformat the entire disk to re-use it. The disk makers claim you can do this up to 1000 times (like any of us are gonna try it ;-)

The process for reformatting varies according to your CD burning software, but most programs will have an "Erase Disk" button somewhere

In addition, Windows XP has built-in CD burning. If you put in a CD-RW that you want erased, double-click the CD recording drive, then under "CD Writing Tasks", click "Erase this CD-RW". The CD Writing Wizard will walk you through an easy 2-step process giving you a blank CD-RW to use.

REMEMBER: This will delete all files from the CD-RW, you cannot erase single files. There are, however, products like InCD that make your CD-RW's act like really big floppies.

CD backup programs, like Drive Image and NTI Backup have and erase feature so you can reformat the CD-RW before you burn. Backing up a hard drive is when CD-RW's really come in handy because you can reuse them, unlike CD-R's.

All this said—since CD-R's are so cheap (less than $1 each when on sale), and we live in a disposable society, the more expensive CD-RW's don't get reformatted as much. But, for those of us who do, keep on burnin' and re-burnin'!

Q: OK,  what's the exception to the CD-R burning rule? 

A: You can add to data onto CD is by using the "Import Session" function located in most burning software.  If you try to use  a CD that has information on it you will need to import that information into your current burning session then continue the burn .  What this does is add to the information on two the current CD so long as it has not been closed.  You should note that this does not work when you're burning music CDs. 

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How to get and setup AVG 7.5

For those of you that are using the old version of AVG (7.1) you are going to have to update your version to the new 7.5. Here are the steps to get the program.

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5#avg-anti-virus-free

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