Tag: Microsoft

How to Keep a Microsoft Surface Awake When Connected to Power

The Microsoft Surface attempts to offer both a tablet and laptop experience and, at least in my experience so far, it seems to fit the bill (how well is up for debate). However, if you are using the Surface more as a laptop you might become a bit annoyed with the aggressive power saving profile …

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Microsoft Surface Type Cover Unboxing and Preview

I was hoping to hold off for a bit longer but due to the degrading reliability of the Touch Cover for my Microsoft Surface I had to kick off the process to get it replaced. Unfortunately, the online chat representative seemed unaware (or unwilling) to offer me the option of having sending back the defective …

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Changing the Default Backup Window in Windows Home Server 2011

If you’re running Windows Home Server 2011 and relying upon it to backup your computers you might not fancy the default times set aside for backups (usually set to between midnight and 3AM). Whilst this window might cover computers that don’t move around (like desktops), laptops and tablets may not always be around or powered …

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How to Upgrade Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 RT Preview on Microsoft Surface

Microsoft really doesn’t do itself much service in naming its products with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 RT Preview being quite a mouthful. However, you can update this preview version to the full version on your Microsoft Surface and knock off the last word in the title. Fortunately, it’s not hard to undertake but helps …

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Quickly Finding the Time on Windows RT

Here’s a quick tip for those getting into Windows RT and Windows 8tablets out there. One common complaint with Windows RT is when you run full screen apps or you are on the Start Screen you are unable to view the time. The only apparent place to see the time and date is on the …

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Microsoft Surface, Windows RT and International Travels

Usually when I am on travels away from home I pack quite a comprehensive technology bag including cameras (a tough camera and a higher end replaceable lens camera) as well as a backup smartphone, tablet and a laptop. The laptop I have been packing recently is a MacBook Pro but decided to throw caution to …

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Automatically Loading a Form in Microsoft Access

Here’s another quick tip for Microsoft Office – this time for Microsoft Access for you budding database experts. If you lock down your database and prevent users from navigating its objects then by default nothing will show up when the database is loaded. Similarly, if your users are using the Microsoft Access Runtime (a cutdown …

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Incorporating Carriage Returns into Formulae in Excel Spreadsheets

Following on from yesterday’s tip on how to search for carriage returns in Excel spreadsheets, here’s how you can incorporate this non-printable character into your formulae. The secret sauce for carriage returns is to include CHAR(10) into your formulae. For instance, if you want to concatenate two cells but put the values on different lines in …

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Searching For Carriage Returns and Tabs in Excel Spreadsheets

Most people know how to use the search and replace function in Excel spreadsheets but it can be a tricky task if what you’re looking for is a non-printable character like a carriage return (i.e. hitting Enter on the keyboard). Thankfully, it’s easy enough to do once you know how 🙂 In the Find and …

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VLC Gains Funding for WinRT Version

While Windows itself supports a number of mainstream audio and video formats you may still want the peace of mind of a “Swiss Army knife” solution – an app that will pretty much play anything you can throw at it. VLC on the desktop is a fine example of such a solution. The good news …

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