Thought I'd get this area of the board up and running.

What's your favourite Windows based tip, or most commonly used short-cut?

Mine is probably the trusty old 'Prnt Scrn' button. Simply press that little beauty, open up Photoshop, Word etc, press PASTE and presto - a nice big screenshot of the current screen!

this lady went to a curtin shop and asked if the would make a curtin for her computer and they said do u mean a dust cover she replied no I mean a curtin, shop keeper said y do u need a curtin for? she replied my computer has windows........


ctrl alt del for me is what i use most.

he he good one!  

I'm trying to think of a good computer hint but but.. I'm hopeless!

1st tip--

If you are looking for a particular word on webpage press 'Ctrl' and F and type the search word/s into the box and hit find.

Your search term or words will be highlighted.

2nd tip-- If you are using internet explorer as your web browser and would like a more user friendly and safer browser try Firefox for free. http://store.mozilla.org/?r=mozorg1

Or  Opera for free -- from here-- http://www.opera.com/download/

They both have tabbed browsing. Once you have learned to use this feature you will never go back to IE.
http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/blahdocs/Smilies/lol.gif
Laughing Out Loud

My tip is that if you don't have Windows XP, you should get it.

It is incredibly stable compared to the previous versions of Windows.

And also very secure with its own Firewall

You don't need a new computer to run Windows XP.

I am running it on an old Pentium II MMX 350 with 192Mb of RAM

If you do run Windows XP, be aware that it does not have Java like the previous versions of Windows.

You need to install java from the Java website.

http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_automatic.jsp

I wonder how large the number of people running older OS's are now.  I run two partitions.  One has 98 and one has XP.  I liked XP until SP2 because it changed it from a decent OS into something that runs as slow as a 10 year old machine.  I didn't find the stability to be much more significant but have seen it more stable on other machines.
I don't use my XP partition much but I'm glad I have the install disk because I'm waiting on the next Windows release at which time I'll upgrade to XP and wait for all the new bugs to be worked out of the new Windows... how stupid does that sound but my guess is that it will save me a lot of headache.
The release date has been pushed around so much it's kind of ridiculous, but I think it's due the end of next year now.
I wish that just ONE Linux distribution, and not a commercial one either which I've found to be poorly managed rip offs, would release software that's as simple to install as it is in Windows.  I've been put off from even trying to learn because it seems that you need to already know the OS really well to learn the OS really well.  There's no "idiots guide to Linux" and there really ought to be.  If these people really wanted to make an impact into the market with opensource software (I again hate commercial linux distros.. it's an oxymoron) then people should concentrate on making one that works with simplicity and not trying to make a differant one that is just as complex but has feature B instead of feature A all the time arguing which one is better.  News flash: Until I can download a file and install it without opening command lines, altering 5 files in 4 differant locations, knowing when a reboot is needed, configuring the reboot process, and so on, both feature A and feature B suck.  Instead these morons let 3 or 4 people get together and sell a subscription to proper software downloads preconfigured for the particular distrobution, giving the distro a new name after slight changes to the code, and the 3 or 4 people profit while everyone who put in all the work are still arguing on IRC channels.
The truth is that I just want one that will run my modem and then I can figure things out, but my modem is a fairly new one and I haven't found a compromise between a distro with lots of interest and an easy solution to installing a driver.

That's my Windows tip, is to not install Windows until it's been released for long enough  for bugs to be worked out, and to praise people of the Linux community while at the same time acknowledge that if no one creates a significant rival OS within the next year then they're all idiots because now would be the time before the next Microsoft release.  The OS's are already there, just got to make software install in a friendly manner.
Also, I usually hold down shift after right clicking and before selecting "delete."  It deletes a file off the drive without sending it to the recycle bin first.  The recycle bin can be disabled but most of us share computers.

Yeah, get FireFox, and also get Google Desktop Search (Y)

Good stuff

Quoted from MeanDean

I I liked XP until SP2 because it changed it from a decent OS into something that runs as slow as a 10 year old machine.

I had this problem too but reformatted my disc and reinstalled winxp os and then the SP2 update before reinstalling all the other programs.  

After you've had a OS running for some time the Registry ends up in a right mess with every program installed rearranging things to suit themselves - then when you upgrade to SP2 things all get rearranged again and no-one is happy.

After reinstalling WinXP on a refreshed disc with SP2 the computer was zipping along at a great pace - I’d forgotten just how quick it used to be.

Regardless of SP2, I think it is a good idea to reformat and reinstall everything every year, because as I said earlier, after a time the registry ends up a real mess and everything starts to slow down.

Quoted from MeanDean

I don't use my XP partition much but I'm glad I have the install disk because I'm waiting on the next Windows release at which time I'll upgrade to XP and wait for all the new bugs to be worked out of the new Windows... how stupid does that sound but my guess is that it will save me a lot of headache.

I don't know how long you want to wait. Windows XP came out in 2001 and Microsoft is making the original version obsolete as of September 2006.

Which mean that unless you have the latest version with Spack2, you won't be able to update Spack1 through the updates to Spack2. I think Cactus might have a good point about doing a clean install with XP. That is what I did.

Prior to XP, I was running Win98 for 5 years and it was very instable. I had to reboot my computer every 6 or 8 hours to recover my memory. I don't have that problem with XP. Actually XP never crash on me.

I did the same thing, reformat, clean install, grab all the updates.  98 is still noticably faster.  They may say they are making it obsolete, but you have to remember that there is very little out there that makes 98 obsolete and it's very old.  Every hardware manufacturer still includes 98/ME drivers and almost all software that runs on XP will run on 98.  Some of it that only specifies XP will still run on 98 and it's more stable for me.  I think it's ridiculous that Microsoft says XP will be obsolete in a year.  If it is, then it will be because they designed it that way, so that people will be pressured to upgrade over security fears then be forced to by all new business software... it's what they did last time and quite frankly I won't have any sympathy for them when entire governments are pirating their software again because they can't afford it as countries that are not rich.  If I don't have to submit to that marketing pressure and don't want to because I'm happy with I have then I wont.  Wouldn't it be stupid to use something I don't like?

I don't have memory or system resource problems on 98.  On XP I do.  It isn't really more stable for me nor is 98 too unstable on my machine, so what's the problem with using a machine that's faster, just as reliable, and does the same thing?

When are they releasing their new OS by the way?

Quoted from MeanDean

I did the same thing, reformat, clean install, grab all the updates.  98 is still noticably faster.  They may say they are making it obsolete, but you have to remember that there is very little out there that makes 98 obsolete and it's very old.  Every hardware manufacturer still includes 98/ME drivers and almost all software that runs on XP will run on 98.  Some of it that only specifies XP will still run on 98 and it's more stable for me.  I think it's ridiculous that Microsoft says XP will be obsolete in a year.  If it is, then it will be because they designed it that way, so that people will be pressured to upgrade over security fears then be forced to by all new business software... it's what they did last time and quite frankly I won't have any sympathy for them when entire governments are pirating their software again because they can't afford it as countries that are not rich.  If I don't have to submit to that marketing pressure and don't want to because I'm happy with I have then I wont.  Wouldn't it be stupid to use something I don't like?

I don't have memory or system resource problems on 98.  On XP I do.  It isn't really more stable for me nor is 98 too unstable on my machine, so what's the problem with using a machine that's faster, just as reliable, and does the same thing?

When are they releasing their new OS by the way?

Well... I don't understand why you don't have any proplem with 98 and are having problems with XP. It is a mystery to me. I guess it could have to do with what sort of software you are using on 98. I do have lots of it. And Dreamweaver in particulary is chewing a lot of memory.
The fact is that XP has a much better memory management and actually recover its memory once you close your programs. 98 did not do that. I had to reboot my PC to recover my memory.

I have only used XP since last January and never did use it without Spack2.
In case you don't know this, I have to tell you that none of the drivers for Window 98 works on XP. I had to update every single drivers to get my hardware to work properly. This could be your problem if you did not know.

I did get a letter from Bigpond a week ago to inform me that it will not support Win98 anymore for its ADSL connection.

On the subject of XP Spack1 becoming obsolete. I think it might have to do with the tremendous amount of updates required to keep it up to date. Spack2 is about 75MB alone. And on top of that, you have about another 40 updates taking another 50MB. It took me almost 4 hours to install all those updates.

Now that I think of it, I've actually done quite a bit of tweaking on 98 including running 2 instances of explorer to handle the filesystem and the shell separately which has made the differance of night and day when it comes to stability.  I've tweaked the settings when it comes to freeing up programs no longer in use and run a memory manager for times when I need it but it rarely uses it.  I almost never need a swap file and for a very long time had never used it until I started doing huge projects in The Gimp.  Also, as far as system resources other than simply memory goes, 9x OS's have the problem of not freeing anything back up while 16 bit programs are running.  I think perhaps that since today 16 bit programs are obsolete, the problem has solved itself or perhaps it's a simple matter of how today's hardware is able to handle that.  Anyhow, I'de forgotten about all the tweaking.

I dont know what al, the fuss is about, I have been using Win 98 for years now and never had a problem.........I do a lot of music converting from a turntable, always using music match jukebox............i have a very fast broadband connection, with iinet....no problem...........the only thing I dont do is play huge games........
My wife uses XP on her pc, she is into family history researchand, well it is better for all the inbuilt programs, and finding drivers, etc......but I cant see me lashing out to buy xp for my pc just yet........

Free Name brand A/V-

If your not using anti- virus program and want FREE well recognized anti virus program- then this is one to be highly recommended by E-trust-- which is NOD 32 licensed product.

It does as good job as Mcafee and Symantec virus scanners.

http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/

 

That was helpfull, the link to the antivirus.  Not just a scanner but monitors what's going on.  Simple but can't argue with free.

I tried to upgrade to XP again.  Not upgrade, but reinstall and taking the advice of installing all the updates first and then putting programs on it.  It was still slow.  I think the problem was that XP decides how it's going to prioritize instead of letting the user control it and I've got 98 seriously tweaked but on top of that I've apparently got a hardware issue that was interfering with it pretty badly and causing reboots left and right because the OS behaves like that on some errors while 98 doesn't seem to care.  It's very strange.

Looks like I'll be buying a new computer when the next release of Windows comes out.

My tip, and this one is for people using 98 or ME, get download cacheman and run all the automatic wizards, if you have a fast CPU set up for no read ahead, and if you have ram to spare force a good size buffer in the areas that aren't covered by the program wizards.

The new version of windows was to be called longhorn but now I believe they are going to call it Vista.

I found a screenshot of a beta.  It looks a lot like XP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Windows_Vista_%28screenshot5%29.jpg

Found it in the Wikipedia.  I find stuff there and then click for hours reading about things I don't use.  Apparently the OS to come after Vista has long been in the works as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Blackcomb

Hot tip from Tricky D:

When browsing any .com websites you do not need to type in the www. or the .com in the address bar of IE.

e.g You want to go to http://www.google.com or http://www.dictionary.com for instance;

Simply type google in the address bar of IE then press Ctrl + Enter or dictionary then Ctrl + Enter

This works for all http://www.???????.com websites...try it now. imdb then Ctrl + Enter

Get yourself a copy of the ultimate boot CD

http://www.mrbass.org/ubcd/

All the utilities and diagnosis tools you will ever need from dos based antivirus, partitioning, through to XP administrator password removal. (IE so you can access any XP computer).

For a quick shut down without the usual Windows loitering just hit the power button on the Box.

When all else fails and you don't live on the 3rd floor or above, dynamite would probably be effective.

What you do is sell it and describe it in the classifieds as "Ideal for students."

http://www.neworder.box.sk for the curious!

If you are running Windows, download this patch to update your system to comply with the adjusted time zones in Australia due to the Commonweath Games.

http://www.microsoft.com/downl.....9&DisplayLang=en

Quoted from normangerman

If you are running Windows, download this patch to update your system to comply with the adjusted time zones in Australia due to the Commonweath Games.

http://www.microsoft.com/downl.....9&DisplayLang=en

Well if daylight saving is a problem for the mexicans they shoulda just canned it!

Did you know (for XP)

If you right click "Start" you get a menu
Particulary useful for quick access to Window Explorer (bottom of menu).

In Window Explorer

Click "View" on the toolbar and "choose details" on the menu.

There you can select which columns you would like to be displayed in Explorer.
I use it to display the name of artists and albums for my music files.

Windows has a zillion settings which are well hidden, but can be changed to customize Windows.
You would need to write a book on Windows to list them.

I would prefer having people asking about how to find such or such thing on Windows rather than writing the book.

I've been using the build of Windows "Costanza" over the long weekend that scuttlebutt says will be recompiled as release candidate this week - real improvement over Windows Vista, actually everything Vista was promised to be slick stable and responsive. Microsoft have really sorted out their errors, not that they'd admit to them existing!

Help!
I'm using windows movie maker to make a movie for my daughter's 21st. When I revisited what I had done, some of the images have big red crosses on them and won't play in the timeline. I've tried browsing for them but it tells me to check the file names.
What can I do??
I know that with the media (audio track and a short video clip, I have to browse from the data stick where they sit. This works fine, but what's happened with the photos?
Sue

Big X means that you've moved the source file somewhere or it isn't available (ie it's been deleted). Find the file you're looking for and move it back into the folder it was in before when you first used it. If you've accidently deleted the file restore it from your recycle bin.

Oh I kept doing that with the audio files I used in the EVSC results show I made, had to re-copy them to desktop so many times  

Lol the alternative to it is to delete the clip you've used in movie maker and reimport it from it's current location. I also believe there is an option to re-assign the location.

Just checked and yes there is. Right click on the file in the imported media and click on browse for missing file and locate it.

Help again!
now  I've got all my picture files, music etc, but the project simply freezes as soon as I go back in to do more work on the edit. What's happening?? Is it to do with the amount of data? Is it a saving issue? If I don't get this movie done by my daughter's 21st birthday party, my life is over!
I am so-o-o-o frustrated!
Sue

I merged the thread "windows movie maker - another problem" with this one.  There was no need to start another thread when it was just as easy to post in the original one.  

heh heh heh sorry it's just funny hearing that cause I've had it done to me a million times over. Usually its the size but also the fact the computer needs to render the video and usually does this through the RAM. So basically you'll need to shorten the video, or at least make half the video, then make the other half, and then make a video with these two halves in there. Should make things easier.

Well... I guess I'm bumping a thread needlessly since I could just as easily keep the thought to myself.

I noticed "Windows Thread" on the front page, and thought "There's a Windows thread??? Wonder why."  Then I clicked in to the first page and saw that I'd actually at some previous date written of bunch of stuff here.  I then remembered the Mac vs. Windows war that 2 members had going on a while back, some argument I had about Windows being crap, from the self righteous perspective of wanting to see the world follow the ideology of the GNU project, and then it hit me.  I thought "It looks too long to bother reading whatever it is that I wrote, but whatever it was, I'm pretty sure it'd be embarrassing now."

Quoted from cactus

The new version of windows was to be called longhorn but now I believe they are going to call it Vista.

Oh boy, just been reading this old thread...............What a disappointment Vista was, I wonder how many would have bought it then if they only knew what they know now   lol.
IMHO XP is far better than anything after........................

My son LOVES Windows 7 ! He said it was like when '98 was superceded by XP!   He always told me 'don't get Vista' smart boy my son

While it's correct Windows Vista was a dog and Seven is riding high, it would not be without Vista's framework (it's version 6.1 afterall). Vista had a bad project plan, features were removed in order to actually ship a product, and what was left was not polished at all, Windows Seven is the complete opposite.

A Microsoft project manager posted this week that the next version of Windows "will be completely different." I hope we see seamless integration between Xbox/home entertainment and Zune/Windows mobile and a much slicker interface (AERO has never done it for me).

I have Vista on my desktop computer...but now thinking of getting laptop.
ASUS is looking good deal at moment..and has WINDOW 7 loaded...so just checking out what is being said!!!!!

Unless you're adverse to user friendliness (like Shelden from Big Bang Theory) and stability go with Seven, if anyone is still selling with Vista preloaded you'll get a free upgrade to seven by filling out some forms but you'll most likely wait a few weeks to receive it.

Running Windows XP on Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows 7 Home Premium

One of the best new features in Windows 7 is called XP Mode. But you can only use it on Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. Too bad. Most users will have Windows 7 Home Premium. But  you can create a virtual Windows XP mode on your Windows 7 Home Premium computer. And another good thing, you can even run Windows XP on Windows 7 if your processor doesn't support virtualization - and many lower-end computers do not.

What you'll need:

1. Free copy of VMware Player (requires free registration)
2. A Windows XP Disk (If you use an XP upgrade disk you'll also need a Windows 2000 or Windows 98 CD too)
3. About 90 minutes of time
4. A little patience

Thanks AQ and LB  

feel happier about my purchace next week now.

Got my laptop....still have to find my way through the programmes ...but looking good so far.

Also purchased a 'track ball' and am getting good at using it      

I like it when someone really lightly slaps them when I'm at my greatest enthusiasm.

my laptop is making me work more  

if i open internet explorer 64 bit.....it can't sometimes cope with some downloads and I have to change to internet explore 34 (i think)...and its a bummer when I am searching and also want to watch something on youtube.

Found out also its a problem when I come to eBlah page (in 64 mode) and want to use youtube code....I had to switch again.
It didn't take me long to work that out though...when I got the red X in the preview message.

Windows 64bit systems can run most, but not all, 32bit applications. Most sites offering downloads will tell you if their program is compatible with 64-bit Windows. If it doesn't tell you, you can write to the developer and ask.  If it works it works if it doesn't it doesn't,  sometimes it's easier just to try something than it is to wait around for someone to write you back. On the flip-side: If you see a program made specifically for 64-bit Windows, it won't run on 32-bit Windows systems.

This should help you   http://windows.microsoft.com/e.....ntly-asked-questions

A major problem with the 64 bit version of IE is plugin support specifically Flash player since so many sites use it, youtube for example requires Flash but Adobe so far have done little about releasing it in 64 bit. By default the 32 bit version of IE will startup, you can tell which version you are running from the processor tab in task manager, 32 but programs will show *32 after their name in the list

Thanks guys....I will get it sorted eventually


(and I should have said '32' not '34' bit, as you know.....)