Newsletter Archives

It's time for another edition of our tips and trick where we present you with a few helpful bits of information which we hope makes your everyday computing tasks just a little bit quicker & easier.

Instant File Properties
You probably already know that you can view a file or directory's properties by right clicking the item and selecting "Properties" from the resulting menu.

But for something a littler quicker and neater that'll impress your friends, you can double click a file while holding the ALT key to see its properties.

XP System Restore
If you've ever downloaded something which hasn't agreed with your computer and it just doesn't seem to work the way it did, you should consider making use of Windows XP's System Restore feature.

System Restore allows you to go back in time on your computer without losing your personal files, photos, emails, etc.

Windows keeps track of changes done to your computer for several days. If things go wrong and you need to go back to a point in time where things were working better, just go to System Restore (Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore), select "Restore my computer to an earlier time", click Next and then select the date you want to roll back to in the calendar and click Next again.

Make sure you have closed all non-essential programs, saved your work and are logged in as administrator rights on your computer. Windows will then restart and with the settings as they were on the date you selected.

As mentioned, Windows will create restore points any time it notices you are making changes to your computer like when you install software but if you ever just want to be safe and create a restore point, select the "Create a Restore Point" instead of "Restore my computer to an earlier time" by following the steps above.

ALT Tab Power Toy
If you've been reading our newsletters for some time now, you already know that to quickly switch between open programs, you simply need to hold the ALT key while repeatedly pressing the Tab key until the program you want is highlighted.

If you have several programs open, it can be quite confusing as to which one you want to switch to. It sure would be helpful if you could see a preview of the one you selected before you switch, wouldn't it?

Well, you can! And, it's free. And, it's provided by Microsoft. It's called the Alt-Tab Replacement Power Toy and can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx.

Just click on the link on the right and follow the instructions to install the power toy. You'll then see a preview of the program that you're about to switch to. Fantastic!

That's it for this month. We hope you find these tips useful and if you did, someone else will, so please share them!