Clipboard enhancement
The Windows clipboard is a very useful tool for copying things (text, images, hyperlinks, files and much more) and pasting them elsewhere. The most obvious use for the clipboard is for copying and pasting text in a word processor like Word or WordPad, but the copy and paste function in almost every program makes use of the clipboard. It also works between programs, so you can copy text from a web browser and paste it into a spreadsheet. Of course, the program you are pasting into needs to be able to use the item you’re pasting – you can’t paste an image into Windows Notepad, for example.


Add a clipboard gadget
The clipboard has one irritating limitation – you can only use it to copy one item at a time. If you copy another item, it will replace anything you’ve currently got in the clipboard. Wouldn’t it be useful to be able to copy several things and then select the one you want to paste? There’s a gadget for Windows 7 and Vista that does exactly this. Go to http://bit.ly/exptips1233 and install Clipboard Manager. If it doesn’t immediately appear, right-click the Desktop and select Gadgets (in Windows 7), or start the Sidebar (in Vista), and add it. Clipboard Manager shows the most recent items that were copied to the clipboard and you can click any of them to make it current – the one that’ll be pasted into a program. The size of the gadget limits the number of clipboard items that are visible but clicking the More link at the top shows all the items – 250 by default but up to 999 if you want to configure it.


Copy multiple items in Firefox
If you are browsing the web using Firefox and you want to copy some text, you can highlight it with the mouse and then press Ctrl+C. You can then switch to another program and press Ctrl+V to paste it in. If there are several items on the web page you want to copy, you could repeat the process or, better still, copy them all in one go. Click and drag over the first block of text to select it and then hold down the Ctrl key as you click and drag over other blocks of text on the page. When you’ve selected everything, press Ctrl+C and all the selected blocks are copied to the clipboard and can be pasted elsewhere.


Automatic copy in Chrome
If you copy a lot of text from web pages, you should use Google Chrome with the AutoCopy extension. Select any text on the page and it is automatically copied to the clipboard, without you having to click a menu or press a key. It’s even better when used with the Clipboard Manager gadget because you can browse the web, selecting text as you go, and each item will automatically be copied to the clipboard and stored. You can then browse through all the items and copy and paste them afterwards. To install extensions, you need Google Chrome Beta 4 (www.google.com/landing/chrome/beta). Then download the AutoCopy extension from www.chromeextensions.org/utilities/autocopy.


Take the clipboard with you
If you use more than one computer, either at home or between home and work, you might find it useful to have a single clipboard manager to use on both. Visual Clipboard (www.visualclipboard.com/download.html) does this, and comes in a portable version. Just unzip the file and put it on a USB memory drive. When the program is run, it restores all the items you copied to the clipboard, no matter which PC you copied them on. Hold down Ctrl and click the mouse or press Ctrl+Alt+V to display the Visual Clipboard window and then select the item you want to paste from a list. A small Desktop widget shows the current clipboard text and you can click the icon to display the clipboard history.


More clipboard tools
There are many more clipboard tools and they all have a slightly different set of features and functions. Some will be more suitable for your particular needs than others, so try them out and see which you like best. Here are just some of the tools you can try: Clipdiary (http://clipdiary.com/karpolan2.php), ClipMate Clipboard Exender (www.thornsoft.com), PasteCopy.NET (www.pastecopy.net) and xNeat Clipboard Manager (www.xneat.com/clipboardmanager).


Source of Information : WebUser February 11 2010

Install updates without rebooting, constrain Windows Media Center’s drive space to a limit you prefer, and force apps to run full-screen.

THIS MAY COME as a shock to you, but Windows doesn’t always behave as it should. Fortunately, I know a few tricks that can rehabilitate your PC. This month, I’ll outline how to avoid automatic reboots after Windows Update runs. I’ll also describe how to limit the amount of disk space Windows Media Center can use. And I’ll share a trick for automatically opening apps in full-screen mode.



Stop Reboots After Automatic Updates
You step away from your computer for a little while, and when you come back, your windows and your work are gone. Why? Because Windows downloaded some updates and then took it upon itself to reboot without asking you for permission to do so. Gah! This very thing happened to me not long ago, and I lost some in-progress work as a result. More precisely, I had instructed the Windows Update pop-up to postpone re - booting for 4 hours—and I just happened to be away from the PC when that timer ran out. Unlucky me. A ridiculously easy fi x for this exists, and I’m kicking my - self for not applying it sooner. If you’ve been plagued by the same problem, here’s what you need to do:

1. In Vista, click Start, type Windows Update, and click Enter. In XP, open the Control Panel and select Automatic Update from the menu of options.

2. In Vista, click the Change Settings option at left. In XP, you can simply skip to step 3.

3. Change the setting to Download updates but let me choose whether to install them (in Vista) or Download up - dates for me, but let me choose when to install them (in XP).

4. Click OK.
That’s it. Windows may still nag you about installing up - dates, but at least it won’t reboot without your permission.



Prevent Windows Media Center From UsingYour Entire Hard Drive
I’m a big fan of the Windows Media Center software that comes baked into most versions of Vista and Windows 7. Specifi cally, I use it in conjunction with a TV tuner (four of them, in fact) to transform my PC into a DVR that rivals TiVo, in my humble opinion. Just one problem: If you use Windows Media Center to record TV shows, it can consume almost your entire hard drive. For example, suppose that you confi gure it to record 30 Rock, The Office, Mad Men, or whatever your favorite shows may be. By default, WMC records an unlimited number of episodes of each TV series you specify; but if a few weeks go by before you have a chance to sit down and watch anything (that’s what a DVR is for, right?), the accumulating shows may fi ll your hard drive to the brim—leaving you little or no room for anything else. The solution to this problem is to limit the amount of space WMC can claim for TV recording. Here’s how to proceed:

1. Start Windows Media Center.

2. Scroll down to Tasks, and then over to Settings, and click that option (or press ).

3. Choose Recorder, and then Recorder Storage. (These options will appear only if you have a TV tuner installed and configured.)

4. Use the minus arrow located next to the redundantly named ‘Maximum TV limit’ to decrease the storage maximum (in 25GB increments) available for Windows Media Center’s use.

5. Click Save to finish the operation.



Force Programs to Run at Full-Screen Size
Reader Bill has a problem with Internet Explorer 8, which he runs in Windows XP: Every time he starts the browser, it opens in a reduced-size window rather than at full-screen size. Then he has to maximize it manually every time. What a hassle! I encountered the same annoyance with Excel 2007. Fortunately, it’s easy to force any program to run maximized (that is, at fullscreen size) when you start it. Here’s how:

1. Right-click the program’s shortcut, and click Properties.

2. The Properties window will open with the Shortcut tab selected. Click the pull-down menu next to Run, and choose Maximized.

3. Click OK, and you’re done.

Henceforth, whenever you start that program using that shortcut, it should automatically give you a full-screen window.


Source of Information : PC World December 2009

HOW YOU MOVE your inbox depends on the version of Windows it’s moving to. I’ll focus on moving from XP to Vista; for details on how to go from one XP system to another or from XP to Windows 7, see find.pcworld.com/63937. First, you must copy your old PC messages. In Outlook Express, select Tools¨Options. Click the Maintenance tab, and then the Store Folder button. The resulting Store Location dialog box has a fi eld containing a folder path (probably starting with ‘C:\Documents and Settings...’). Select this entire path by clicking inside it, pressing , and then pressing -. With the entire path highlighted, press -C to copy it. Click Cancel twice to leave both dialog boxes. Be sure to close Outlook Express. Then select Start¨Run, press -V to paste that path into the Run box, and press .

A Windows Explorer window will open, showing the contents of your store folder—the one holding your mail. Click the Up Folder icon to move to that folder. Copy the folder (probably called ‘Outlook Express’) to an external drive, a shared folder, or other media. In Vista, launch Windows Mail, and select File¨Import¨Messages. Select Microsoft Outlook Express 6 as the program in the resulting Windows Mail Import wizard. Click the Browse button, find and select the Outlook Express folder that you copied from your old PC, and click Select Folder. Complete the wizard’s remaining steps. To move the contents of your old inbox into your new one, click the Inbox folder inside the Imported Folder folder, press -A to select all the messages, and drag them to the real Inbox folder.

Source of Information : PC World December 2009

MY WIFE’S PC came with a trial of Microsoft Office 2007, but I installed IBM Lotus Symphony on the system instead—in part because it’s free, and in part because I think it’s easier to use. But when the missus attempts to open certain file types (such as .docx or .rtf), up pops Office 2007, its trial period having long since expired. Why don’t these files open in Symphony?

For whatever reason, certain file types remain associated with Office, so
Windows doesn’t know that it’s supposed to direct them to Symphony. Fortunately, the problem is easy to fix. In Vista and Windows 7, click Start, type Default, and press to load the Default Programs menu in Windows. Then click Associate a file type or protocol with a program, choose the file type in question, click Change Program, and go from there. That’s a lengthy process. I prefer to right-click any file that’s incorrectly associated (such as one of the aforementioned .rtf files), mouse over Open With, and click Choose Default Program. If the program you want appears under Recommended Programs (and it should), click it, and make sure the checkbox for Always use the selected program to open this kind of file is checked. Click OK and you’re done.
Henceforth, any attempt to open that file type (not just that file) will cause Windows to load the selected program. If the program doesn’t appear, click Browse to locate its executable on your hard drive. That’s not the easiest task in the world, but you’ll need to do it if you want to re-associate that file type. The most common file association hassle you’re likely to encounter involves media files—MP3s, videos, and the like—that refuse to open where you want them to. This solution works with those kinds of files as well as with document files.

Source of Information : PC World December 2009

UPDATES ARE CONFUSING because Microsoft throws a lot of stuff at you. Some items you need; some you might like; and some Microsoft wants you to have for its own purposes. The fact that most of the updates’ names are meaningless certainly doesn’t help. For any Windows Vista update, double-clicking the update will summon a pop-up window with a description. In XP, click the + next to the update name to expand the list and show details.

Vista updates come in three levels:

• Important: Most of these updates are essential security fixes. Unfortunately, Microsoft occasionally throws something into this group that it wants you to have for its own benefit—not yours— such as Windows Genuine Advantage.

• Recommended: Nothing horrible will happen if you skip these items, but you might miss something that will make your PC work better. Read the descriptions and decide for yourself.

• Optional: You might occasionally discover a useful driver update here, but more likely you’ll find marketing hype. XP has just two levels:

• High Priority: As with Vista’s Important category, most of the content here is crucial. For example, if you still use Internet Explorer 6, the upgrade to IE 8 is high-priority. IE 8 is significantly more secure, but it’s a big change and some people hate it.

• Optional: Divided into separate Software and Hardware sublevels, this group combines useful but nonvital updates, drivers (though not many), and useless hype. Use your judgment.

Most individual Windows updates—even Important and High Priority ones—aren’t cumulative. If they were, you’d need to update your PC with only the most recent of them. The big service packs, however, are always cumulative. In fact, Microsoft just recently replaced a long list of Vista updates with one: Service Pack 2.

Source of Information : PC World December 2009

Windows Server 2008 R2 not released yet, but...let's look at the new features in Server 2008 R2... 64-bit only--Windows Server 2008 R2 marks the...

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