Category: Windows Vista

Jan 24 2011

Adjust and Mute Volume for Individual Windows Applications

Windows 7 Volume Mixer (Sound Device Selection)

Sometimes, you might have one or a few applications that will make noise on your computer for whatever reason on a regular basis or the cause of the sound is outside of your control (i.e. receiving instant messages, e-mail, etc). This can be particularly annoying if you are trying to concentrate on other things such …

Continue reading

Jan 20 2011

Upgrade to Microsoft Security Essentials Version 2.0

Microsoft Security Essentials - Manually Check for Software Updates

Quick tip for this evening. An update to Microsoft Security Essentials was released by Microsoft on 16 December, 2010 which saw the version number increment up to Version 2.0. This was after the second Tuesday of the month (AKA “Patch Tuesday”) where Microsoft releases patches and upgrades for its software through Windows Update. This meant …

Continue reading

Jan 19 2011

Improve Screen Readability – Increase Text Size

One complaint that I do come across after a user has had their screen set at its native resolution is that the size of the text on the screen has shrunk and, especially for smaller displays that run at high resolutions, can still be difficult to read. Luckily, you can increase the size of the …

Continue reading

Jan 18 2011

Improve Screen Readability – Enable & Tune ClearType

Leading on from yesterday’s article which looked at modern digital displays such as LCDs, LEDs and plasmas, the concept of the native resolution and how lower resolutions may not align with the physical rows and columns of pixels on a display. Today, I have another tip to further improve the readability of text on your screen. ClearType, …

Continue reading

Jan 17 2011

Improve Screen Readability – LCD Screen Native Resolution

It never fails to amaze me how many people do not take the time to optimise the readability of their screens particularly when they will be using it for many hours a day. I must have lost count of the number of times I have seen LCD screens running below their native resolution resulting in …

Continue reading

Jan 15 2011

Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Release Imminent

Just a quick update for this evening. The rumour mills are in full swing with reports of the first service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be released very soon. Furthermore, there have been leaked copies of pre-release builds of the unified service pack floating around on the web. As a …

Continue reading

Jan 10 2011

Windows 7 Tip – The Case of the Missing Run Box

Windows 7 - Start Menu with Run command enabled

If you are an old hand with Windows like myself you may have become accustomed to using the old “Run box” found by click on “Start” and then “Run” since Windows 95. However, with Windows Vista and Windows 7 it disappeared from the Start Menu in favour of getting people to use the newly included …

Continue reading

Jan 03 2011

Evernote – Cross-Platform Notes in the Cloud

Some people, such as myself, are not entirely and completed wedded to a single content and device ecosystem in that I have the Samsung Galaxy S as my mobile phone (an Android device for those unfamiliar with it), a Windows 7 custom built desktop  at home, a Windows 7 MSI Wind netbook and an Apple …

Continue reading

Dec 27 2010

Increase Your Browsing Real Estate on Small Screens

Some of us have netbooks or smaller laptops with ten to twelve inch screens that we take with us to travel light whilst still having access to a fairly functional computer. However, in doing so, we sacrifice the luxury of a larger screen which can make a big difference when attempting to do heavy multitasking …

Continue reading

Dec 15 2010

Sleep and Hibernation Modes – What’s the Difference?

Over the years the humble shut down menu in Windows has been home to a number of options since it appeared back in Windows 95. If you can cast your mind back fifteen years, the usual suspects in the menu were: Shut down the computer Restart the computer Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode Close …

Continue reading