Underline key combinations and shortcuts for direct access(Windows Vista, 7)

                While operating menus throughout Windows, you are used to seeing the respective shortcut letters that are characterized by underlines, which help you learn how to quickly use keyboard shortcuts.

                Since Vista, the underlining of shortcut keys in menus for better readability is turned off as a standard setting. This practical and unobtrusive help function can be quickly activated again in the ‘Ease of Access Center’.
                For this, click in the Control Panel on ‘Ease of Access’ and then on ‘Ease of Access Center’. There, follow the link ‘Make the keyboard easier to use’. Activate the option ‘Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys’. Confirm the dialogue with ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ one after the other (or ‘Save’ in Vista). The change is active without a restart. However, these underline hints are not present everywhere; they are mainly there in the classic menus and, for example, not in the Windows Explorer toolbar.

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Use Windows’ reliability test for active troubleshooting(Windows Vista, 7)

                 Windows occasionally goes through a system crash or responds very slowly. But the innumerous entries in the event display hardly help you in troubleshooting.

                 Since Vista, a reliability test has been available hidden in the Control Panel. To start it, first click ‘System and Security’ and then ‘Action Center’ in the Control Panel in Windows 7. Open the ‘Maintenance’ by clicking the arrow icon to the right, and then click the ‘View reliability history’ link below it. In Vista, click ‘System and Security’ and ‘Performance information and performance tools’. To the left, select the ‘Other tools’ category and follow the link ‘Open reliability and performance control’. Now select the ‘Reliability control’ to the left.
                 A diagram will now show you at a glance the system stability chronologically with icons in different lines, showing which warnings and errors have occurred. With the ‘Days’ and ‘Weeks’ links to the left, you can define the period for which you can browse through. For more exact specifications on the detected problems, click in the time column in question. Windows will display all relevant individual events as a group. By clicking the ‘Technical details’ link, you will get further information about the relevant program, its path or the erroneous module.
                 This is how you can identify the events relevant for system problems a lot quicker than in the detailed event display. However, the solution for that will have to be found out by you. The ‘Look for solutions for all problems’ link, which requires information from Microsoft, is helpful. Otherwise, you should look through Google, forums or magazines to find a suitable remedy.

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Divide your Windows desktop into functional areas(Windows XP, Vista, 7)

              You are using up more and more of your time to delete unwanted desktop icons, to group the rest and to move them together in a specific area of your screen.

              For Windows XP, Vista and 7, the program Fences supports you in dividing your desktop into areas and grouping the various icons. Download the tool on your system directly from www.stardock.com. Start the installation by double clicking the file in Windows Explorer and then follow the instructions of the setup wizard. For that, you will definitely require administrator rights. However, if the user account control does not open automatically, right click the file and select the context command ‘Run as administrator’. After the installation, click ‘Start using Fences’. This option will help you in the configuration of the tool. Experienced users can also select ‘I want to create my own Fences’ and configure without help.
               In the next step, Fences offers two choices. ‘Create different Fences’ generates two empty fields on your desktop. The icons will initially be located near the area on the desktop before they can be individually placed in them via drag and drop. For that, the ‘Sort out my icons’ option arranges your icons in the new generated fields. Then give the application the final touch via ‘Open Fences settings’. You can also access this dialog later by right clicking the desktop and via ‘Configure Fences’ context command.
                You can move the icons from the desktop to a field or between two fields via Drag&Drop. You can generate a new field by right clicking on the desktop, keeping the key pressed and dragging the space. Then select the ‘Create new Fence here’ command in the next context menu and give it a name. You can change the position and size of the fields as in Windows dialogs. If you want a different name for a field, right click in the desired area of the desktop and select the ‘Rename Fence’ context command.
                Double clicking any empty area on the desktop will now hide all Fences, and double clicking again will reveal them.

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Providing drive icons with level indicator(Windows XP)

             Since Vista, Explorer immediately shows you a graphical view of how much space has been occupied on the individual drives. You wish you had this optical aid even in XP and look for a setting to get it.

             Windows XP only shows the space utilization of a drive in the context menu. But you can also copy the new design in XP with the small free tool Vista Drive Icon, so that you do not have to execute a command first. That is available at drvicon.sourceforge.net. At the time of installation, follow the steps in the wizard. In the end, start the program.
              A user interface as such does not exist, but the tool can be integrated in the Windows Explorer and started automatically instead. The level indicator is displayed by graduated individual icons for system drives and removable drives. The icons are available by default in the ‘C:\Programs\Vista Drive Icon\Icons’ folder. If you want, you can also change these icons individually with the help of a normal graphic program. To remove the small program, simply use the provided Uninstall tool.

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Avoid warnings when accessing a network drive(Windows Vista, 7)

              If you right click on a ZIP folder in a linked network drive, you get a warning message from Windows or Internet Explorer.
              Windows has not identified your local network correctly and considers it to be an Internet access to a potentially harmful file in which case the warning is justified. The relevant adaptation of common Intranet settings will solve this problem.

               Go to the control panel and click ‘Network and Internet Connections’ and then ‘Internet Options’. Go to the ‘Security’ tab. In the area for selecting a zone, click the ‘Local intranet’ icon and then click ‘Sites’ below it. There, first activate the ‘Automatically detect intranet network’ option. Then click ‘Advanced’. Here, define the other computer from your local network as a member of the intranet zone. Since websites have to be entered here, use the format ‘file://Computer name’.
NOTE: If you do not know the correct computer name, then click ‘System and Security’ on the other computer in the control panel or ‘System and Maintenance’ under Vista and then on ‘System’. The searched computer name is displayed in the dialog below.
              Confirm the entered name by clicking ‘Add’ on the first computer. Then close the open dialogs. You have thus included the second computer in the ‘Intranet’ zone without changing the relevant security settings.
NOTE: If you need to allocate more computers or the process does not work, then you can enable all local pages and network paths in general. For this, once again go to ‘Local Intranet’ in the ‘Internet Options’ and click ‘Sites’. Disable the option ‘Automatically detect intranet network’ and activate the following three options instead. Confirm the settings with ‘OK’. In case of this option, note that all network paths will be classified as reliable, which could prove to be a security risk.

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Speed up a netbook or an old notebook(Windows Vista, 7)

               When travelling, you are working with an inefficient notebook/netbook under Vista or Windows 7. It boots up very laboriously and slowly and the operating speed is also painfully slow.
               The performance of a computer mainly depends on its working memory (RAM). If it is 1 GB or less, then clearing is a frequent burden on the hard disk which can slow mobile devices down considerably. From Vista onwards, there is a method called ReadyBoost which is improved in Windows 7 to provide additional flash memory as RAM supplement for the system. You can enable it with a USB pen drive or even with a fast SD card.
               Here, the additional memory should be 2x or 4x the RAM capacity. Moreover, the reading and writing speed must fulfil the specified minimum requirements so as to ensure proper functioning. Only then can considerable acceleration be achieved. An SDHC card with 4 GB memory and at least a ‘Class 6’ rating is practical in most cases. This shows that the card attains a writing speed of at least 6 MB/sec.
               Insert the card in a slot on the mobile computer and then click ‘Accelerate System’ in the ‘Autorun’ dialog. Here, the card need not be empty but should have sufficient free memory space.
               The ‘Properties’ dialog of the new drive then opens automatically to the ‘Readyboost’ tab. Activate the option ‘Use this device’ and define the reserved memory size with the slider. A minimum of 230 MB is required but it is better to have more. Confirm the settings with ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’.
               The drive can also be used normally with any remaining space. The reserved memory is present in the file ‘ReadyBoost. sfcache’ which you cannot delete from this computer during operation. The file is deleted after the drive is properly ejected and is automatically created on the original computer on connecting again. Disable ReadyBoost in the same dialog for if you subsequently need to release the occupied space.
                You must try what the acceleration does for your system and which setting is optimal. But if you surf with many tabs open, you will mark a noticeable improvement. SD cards are extremely price-worthy nowadays as a result of which this is absolutely worth a try.

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