Tag: Microsoft

Windows 8: Potential System Reset Functionality

Windows 8 might be a little while away (perhaps with a release some time next year) but one thing that caught my eye browsing the web today was the potential new feature being the concept of the “system reset”. Granted, this was shown off in a leaked image but it’s interesting to see what might …

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Add Real Time Spell Check to Internet Explorer

A quick tip for tonight. If you use Internet Explorer a bit (if there is anyone left) you may find the lack of spell check a bit of a pain (unless it is provided by a JavaScript function on a particular website). It’s somewhat amazing that such a feature has not made it into Microsoft’s …

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Pep Up Your Laptop Speed by Checking the Power Management Settings

A quick tip for this evening. Many of us have laptops and we do need to use them away from a power point when required. However, this often means that your laptop is running in a low power consumption mode designed to prolong battery life at the expense of performance. This can be a pain …

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Webroot Social Media Sobriety Test

Some of us may have regrets of posting a message on one or more social media websites after having had a big night on the grog. Whilst I don’t drink (and as a result don’t have this particular issue) I can possibly see some merit in a sobriety test for social media sites for those …

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Microsoft Wants to Say Goodbye to Internet Explorer 6

It might be hard to believe but Internet Explorer 6 is still alive and kicking ten years after it was released. Whilst IE has come a long way in terms of speed and standards compliance particularly in IE9 previous version left a lot to be desired. Needless to say, hanging on to decrepit software and forcing websites …

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Quickly Swap Screen Configurations Under Windows 7

Windows 7 Display Toggle

If you chop and change between external screens and data projectors you might be frustrated with having to go into the display properties in Windows and setting up the new device as a secondary screen and working some magic to get it all working. Generally, laptops have the ability to swap between several display outputs …

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Change the Default Document Format to Office 2003 in Office 2007 & 2010

Change the default document format in Office 2010

More people are making the switch to Office 2007 and Office 2010 however there are still those clinging on to older versions who are unable to open the newer Office 2007 formats (such as .docx and .xlsx which are differentiated from older versions with the extra “x” on the end of the file extension). I …

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Reclaim Space – Remove Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Backup Files

Removing backup files created during service pack installation

One of the hot topics today is the general release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 to the public. Whilst it isn’t a ground breaking update in terms of adding new features to Windows 7 (a lot more of the action is related to Windows Server 2008 R2) it does contain a few important …

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Windows Home Server 2011 Features Time Machine Backups… Sort of…

Automated backups for Windows machines has been a staple of Windows Home Server since it was first released and in  Windows Home Server 2011 that core functionality has been preserved. Microsoft had planned to  support backups of Mac OS X computers through the Time Machine feature however Apple removed the ability to do so by …

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An Easier Way to Run Applications as Administrator in Windows Vista & Windows 7

Here’s a quick tip for this evening. From time to time, we need to open an application as an administrator instead of the limited user rights that we have by default in Windows Vista and Windows 7. However, this can be a pain as you need to locate the program you want to run (either …

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