Windows

If you want to discontinue being reminded to clean off unused icons or shortcuts you've put on your Windows XP desktop, follow the easy steps at the How-To Geek's web site.

Windows XP lets you display the contents of folders in a variety of ways -- a detailed list of the files, as thumbnail images, etc. Each folder in the My Computer or My Documents folder can have its own view. That’s useful for folders like My Pictures, because you can look at your digital photos in Thumbnails or Filmstrip view. But changing the view for every folder can be time-consuming.

If you prefer to have all your folder contents displayed in a particular way, you can save yourself some time by changing the view for all the folders on your computer at once.

For details on how to set your folders so they all have the same view (with info also on how to reset the view for all folders), visit Microsoft's page at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/tips/views.mspx.  read more »

Here's a novel idea for a screensaver from Parent Hacks: use your My Pictures folder (or wherever you store your digital photos on your machine) as the source for your screensaver. Here's how it works with Windows XP:

• Click on the Start Menu, then Control Panel
• Double-click on Display
• Find the Screensaver tab, and choose "My Picture Slideshow."
• By default, this points to your My Pictures folder, but you can point it anywhere you want.
  
• When finished, click OK

iTunes 7 now supports multiple libraries. Just hold down the alt key on your computer when launching iTunes.

You can use the scroll button on your mouse to zoom in and out of documents quickly. Just hold down the Ctrl key and roll the scroll wheel forward to get a closer view of the document, or roll it back to shrink it.

1. Right hand click on your taskbar at the bottom
2. Click on Toolbars
3. Click on iTunes
4. Minimize iTunes

Now, you'll see a mini version of iTunes in your taskbar.

This past week, I have had the extreme pleasure of being able to use an iPod Touch.

   read more »

Make your start menu more powerful by adding numbered shortcuts.

Create a new shortcut, for example to Microsoft Word. Rename it to 1 - Word and drag it onto your start menu. Now, when you want to start Word, push the Windows Key, then 1. Add more frequently used applications as needed.

The past few weeks, we've gotten a few requests to try alternatives to Microsoft Windows.

Linux has come a long way in just the past few years. There are two that are extremely easy to try. So easy in fact, you don't even have to install them. They run straight off of CD.

Ubuntu is one distribution of Linux that is community developed. It fairly low system requirements, and can run directly off of CD.

You can download it here.

You can find a getting started guide here.  read more »

Windows gives you a few options as to what you want to heppen when you push the power button on your computer, including shutting your computer down.

1. Right-click on the desktop, and click Properties
2. Click on the Screen Saver tab, and then the Power button
3. Click the Advanced button and take note of the options near the bottom
4. Select the option you want and click on OK > OK