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We are here to try and help
.Instant Access to your Desktop Icons
Are you the sort of computer user who likes to have 10 windows open at the same time? Browser windows seem to pop up out of nowhere and then there's the email program, the word-processing program, the media player and more. The problem with running all these programs at the same time is you often have to minimize everything to get to an icon on your desktop. Then you lose the order of your windows! What if you could get two-click access to those desktop icons without minimizing a single window? Check this out:
Right click on an empty area of the Taskbar, point to Toolbars and click Desktop.
You'll see a new toolbar called Desktop. On that toolbar you'll see a list of all the icons you have on your desktop. Just click one of the icons and it opens the file or application.
It doesn't get much easier than that!
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.Open up the Control Panel Fast
Here's a quick tip on opening the Control Panel. Sure, you can get to it from the Start menu and then click on Control Panel. Everyone does it that way and you want to be different. Try this: Press the "Windows" key and then press R at the same time. This opens the Run dialog box. Then type "control" (without the quotes) in the Open text box and press [ENTER]. The Control Panel opens up right away.
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Windows XP Tip: Create Restore Points
Use this tip to get back to work quickly if something goes wrong in XP.
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XP has a feature called System Restore that hasn't been offered in any other version of Windows. If you're familiar with GoBack, you might already have a good idea of what this new feature is all about. Join us as we teach you how to use this feature on today's episode of "Call for Help."
Basically, every time you start your computer XP will automatically create restore points along the way. A restore point is nothing more than a snapshot of your entire system's settings. In the event that something goes wrong with your machine after a botched installation, you have a way out instead of having to call for help or format your hard drive and start over.
You have the option to create these manually if you'd like. It's not a bad idea to get in the habit before you begin loading software that's not officially specified by Microsoft to be compatible with XP.
System Restore doesn't affect personal files like Word documents, browser favorites, or pictures. So, you won't be losing anything of value should you find yourself having to choose a point in time to restore.
Create a restore point
To manually set system restore points, follow these directions:
Single-click Start and point to All Programs.
Mouse over Accessories, then System Tools, and select System Restore.
In the System Restore wizard, select the box next the text labeled "Create a restore point" and click the Next button.
Type a description for your new restore point. Something like "Before I installed some program that may cause my system major grief" would do just fine, but you don't have to be that descriptive.
Click Create.
OK, so the million question is, how do you restore a point if something bad happens? I'm glad you asked, because you can do this one of two ways.
Access restore points
During the boot process you just need to boot into safe mode by pressing F8 during the post screen. Just select the option labeled "Last known good configuration (your most recent settings that worked)" and press Enter. The one drawback to using this method is you won't have the option to select which restore point you'd like to restore.
The other method is to boot into basic safe mode and access the System Restore wizard located in the system tools again. This will let you restore your computer based on a calendar of when actual restore points were created. This may give you more flexibility in the long run.
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.Organize Your Favorites in Internet Explorer
Most of us end up with a slew of favorite Web sites littering the Favorites menu after surfing the Internet for a few weeks or months. Does it seem like whenever you click the Favorites menu in Internet Explorer that it takes forever to load and then it ends up all over the place! Forget about finding anything in that mess. What we need is a way to organize our Web sites. Here's how:
Open Internet Explorer and click the Favorites menu. Click the Organize Favorites command.
In the Organize Favorites dialog box, click the Create Folder button. A New Folder appears. Type in the name for the folder.
Drag one of the corners of the dialog box to make it larger. You can to be able to see your favorites.
Drag your favorites to the new folder. You can make as many folders as you like. Give them meaningful names and then drag the pages to the folder that matches the topic of the page.
When you're done, just click the Close button.
Make some time to organize your favorites once a week. You'll be amazed by how much more productive you'll be when you can actually find your stuff!
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