Archive for the ‘Cool and Interesting’ Category

More Windows 7 Tips and Tricks

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Windows 7 builds and improves upon the advances made in Windows Vista.  A lot has been written about how to take advantage of the new features, but a lot of this information is scattered all over the place.  Here are some of the new features that I personally use.

Sizing and moving windows

If you want to have two windows up side-by-side, it’s easy have Windows automatically size them for you with the snap feature.  Simply drag a window to the left side of the screen, and it will automatically dock to the left.  Then do the same with your second window on the right side of the screen and you’ve got both windows running side-by-side.  This is great for widescreen monitors, and if you were paying attention to my previous blog, you know that you can do this with Windows key shortcuts (Win+Left/Right Arrow).

Let’s say you want to minimize all windows but the one in which you are currently working.  You can quickly do this by clicking and holding onto the windows bar of your current window and then shaking the mouse back and forth a few times.  Bring the minimized windows back by doing it again.

The improved calculator

In Windows 7, the built-in calculator has been redesigned to allow you to go beyond basic math with unit conversion, such as Fahrenheit to Celsius and ounces to grams. Calculation templates make it easier to figure out things like fuel economy and lease payments. Additionally, new features such as Programmer, Scientific, and Statistics modes and tracking calculation history make it a very powerful tool.

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The Problem Steps Recorder

 

If you’re having a problem with an application and need an easy way to illustrate the problem to tech support or your friend the computer expert, you can use Problem Steps Recorder to automatically capture the steps you take, including a text description of where you clicked and screen shot. Once you have recreated the problem and captured these steps, you can save them to a file and send it to your support person, who can then open it up and view the steps you recorded.

To launch Problem Steps Recorder, simply click Start, type PSR and then hit Enter. Or, you can do it using the Win+R shortcut key.

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Open multiple instances of the same program

Here’s another helpful tip that can make it easier to get things done in Windows. If you’ve already got an application running, like Microsoft Word, or a Command Prompt, and you want to open another instance of the program, rather than clicking through the Start menu, you can simply Shift+Click on the taskbar icon to quickly launch another instance.

The taskbar and Start menu

In Windows 7 you can pin favorite programs anywhere on the taskbar or Start menu for consistent and easy access. And once you’ve pinned some items to the taskbar, you can easily rearrange them any way you like by clicking and dragging. You can also use the taskbar to preview windows by moving the mouse over a taskbar icon to see a thumbnail preview of open files or programs. Then, move your mouse over a thumbnail to preview the window full-screen. You can even close a window from the thumbnail preview – a big time saver.

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Windows 7 Windows Key Shortcuts

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Windows 7 comes with many new tools and features designed to make it the most robust and powerful operating system ever.  The intuitive design means that many people know how to use Windows, but there are numerous tips and tricks that you can master to make yourself a more efficient user, and in the next two updates, I’m going to talk about some of these.

Most people know how to use CTRL+C and CTRL+V to  copy and paste, but did you know that in addition to these and other commonly-known shortcut keys, there are numerous others that involve the Windows key? Take a look at this table and familiarize yourself with a few of these shortcuts and you’ll find yourself navigating Windows like an expert:

Key Combination

Result

Win+Up Arrow

Maximize window

Win+Down Arrow

Minimize / restore window

Win+Left Arrow

Snap window to left side

Win+Right Arrow

Snap window to right side

Win+Home

Minimize / restore all other windows

Win+Space

View desktop without minimizing any windows

Win+Tab  Win+Shift+Tab

Cycle through windows in 3D

Win+D

Minimize / restore all windows

Win+E

Open Windows Explorer at Computer node

Win+F

Open Windows Search

Win+L

Lock desktop

Win+R

Open Run window

Win+U

Open Ease of Access Center

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How to Create Custom Ringtones for your iPhone from Music Files in iTunes

Monday, March 29th, 2010

In iTunes, by default, you can only create ringtones from music you purchased from the iTunes Store. I personally have never bought any music from the iTunes store – I have a lot of music on CD that I legally own and have ripped to my computer in the form of MP3 files. It’s easy enough to add such files to your iTunes library and subsequently your iPhone (use the File -> Add File/Folder to Library option in iTunes).

So let’s say you’ve got a song you like and you want to create a ringtone out of it. Since you can’t make a ringtone out of an entire song, you need to identify which portion of the song you want to use as the ringtone. I try to find a catchy riff that’s easy to loop and is going to be loud enough to hear like you’d expect from a normal ringtone.

So for example, I have a song here that I want to make a ringtone out of. I’ve identified that if I just use the first two bars, or roughly the first eight seconds of the song, it should be about right.

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So right-click on the song and then click Get Info. Then click the Options tab. Set the Start Time and End Time values using the x:xx.xxx format and then click OK. At this point you’re just giving it your best guess.

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Now back in the music library screen in iTunes, I like to select the checkbox for ONLY the song I’m creating the ringtone from, like so:

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Then, at the bottom of the screen, select the repeat button – the third one from the left:

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This allows you to play and loop the snippet so that you can hear it just as you would if it were playing as a ringtone from your phone.

Most likely you’re going to find that your timing is a little off and you’ll need to go back into the song properties and adjust the start and stop times. Ideally you want it to play so that when it loops back to the beginning, it maintains the beat and blends seamlessly from end to start. Here’s what I came up with for this song after I was satisfied with the timing:

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Once you’ve done that, the next step is to right-click the song and then click Create AAC Version. This creates a compact audio file that captures only the portion of the song that you specified based on the start and stop time values.

Next, right-click the AAC version and then click Copy.

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Now on your computer, create a folder where you will store ringtone files. Right-click in this folder and then click Paste. You should see your file name with a .m4a extension. Rename this, changing the extension to .m4r.

Now, back in iTunes you can delete the AAC version of the song you created. Right-click it and then click Delete. Click Remove and then click Keep File. This removes it from your iTunes library without deleting the file itself from your computer.

Also, don’t forget to go back into the options for the original song and uncheck the start and stop times. If you don’t do this, then any time you try to play this song in iTunes, or on your iPhone or iPod once you’ve synced with iTunes, then it will play only the portion of the song between the start and stop times.

Now, in iTunes, click the Ringtones library. Then on the File menu, click Add File to Library. Browse to the folder where you copied the ringtone file to and then click Open.

Clearly, you can see that I think KMFDM songs make great ringtones.

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Finally, click your iPhone device, and then on the Ringtones tab, select Sync ringtones and then click Apply.

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Having done this, you can now go into your contacts on your phone and assign a custom ringtone that you’ve created as the default ringtone, or even to individual contacts.

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Windows Live Error 800706be – Service Unavailable

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

The other night I turned on my computer and when Windows Live tried to sign in, I got an error that the service was unavailable. To me, that sounded like Windows Live was offline for maintenance or something along those lines, so I figured I’d give it some time and try again later.

The next day I was surprised to see that I was still getting this message when I tried to log in. I checked with a friend and he was online, so my “down for maintenance” theory no longer seemed like a valid consideration.

I looked more closely at the error code: 800706be and did some standard Internet searching. Turns out that this highly descriptive and not-at-all-nebulous error code can apply to any number of problems, with solutions ranging from reinstalling/repairing Messenger, cleaning the registry, or just crossing your fingers and waiting a little while.

After a while, I finally stumbled across the fix. Evidently my Windows Live contacts cache had somehow gotten corrupted and the answer was to delete it and allow Windows Live Messenger to recreate it.

In Windows Explorer, I browsed to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Contacts and then delete all subfolders. When I launched Messenger, I was able to log in again.

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Changing the default folder view in Windows 7

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

For whatever reason, Microsoft decided that when you’re in Windows Explorer, you don’t need to see the folder structure.  So if I’m in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12, my Explorer window may look something like this:
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I find that I frequently need to browse other folders within the folder structure, which means that the simplified view offered out of the box means extra clicks.  So, if you right-click on an empty space in the folder view pane, you’ll see the Expand to current folder option:
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This setting is persistent. So from now on, when you’re navigating in Windows Explorer, you’ll now see the expanded tree view like this:
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Five Things I Like about Windows 7

Monday, November 16th, 2009

I was a late-ish adopter to Windows Vista.  Having worked with it from early beta stages on, there was no way I was going to touch it until at least SP1, and even then the only reason I did eventually upgrade was because I needed a 64-bit operating system.  I figured, if I’m going to upgrade, I might as well really upgrade.  So while Vista wasn’t great, it wasn’t all bad either, and although Microsoft did miss the mark in a lot of ways, with a powerful enough PC, you could get along with Vista just fine.  This brings me to Windows 7.  Windows 7 is to Windows Vista what Windows XP was to Windows Me.  So there you go.

Here are a few things that I like about Windows 7.

1. Performance.  Windows 7 is flat-out faster than Vista from boot to shutdown to everything in between.

2. Stability.  One of my biggest gripes with Vista was that I could not use hibernate.  Well, I could, but only if I wanted to see a blue screen followed by a hard reboot every time it kicked in.  With Windows 7 power save, I haven’t had a single problem coming out of hibernate, or a crash at any other time come to think of it.

3. Taskbar pinning and preview.  I love being able to drag items to the taskbar and pin them there.  Also with multiple instances of a program open, or even multiple tabs in IE, mousing over the taskbar icon gives you mini preview of the windows so you can click the one you need.

4. Less intrusive UAC.  While it’s debatable whether or not this is actually a good thing, the User Account Control feature pops up far less frequently.  I know some people really hated this feature in Vista, but to me, UAC is like a seatbelt for your PC.  Get in the habit of using it.

5. Windows XP mode.  Basically a free download of Virtual PC and a Windows XP virtual hard disk.  XP mode is great for those older apps that worked fine in XP, but thumb their nose at you even when you try to run them in compatibility mode.

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The big upgrade question

Friday, November 6th, 2009

I can’t tell you how often I’m asked the big question: “Should I upgrade to Windows 7?” As an evangelism content developer I’ve been working with Windows 7 since just before its initial beta release and I’m sold on it already. It looks nice, it runs well, and it’s shiny new.

The big question to ask should really be: “How will Windows 7 help me get my work done better?” This is really the key. If you plan on keeping your existing machine, you run two applications all the time, have no plans to buy any new accessories (scanner, camera, printer), there probably isn’t much point in upgrading. Your new applications might run a touch faster – it’s certainly possible they won’t. So why spend the money?

I have several reasons why I consider it worthwhile to upgrade to Windows 7:

Improved Taskbar

Why does this matter? For one thing, I can fit more applications without wrapping to multiple rows. I can launch new instances or restore running instances by the same action: clicking the taskbar button. Less thinking means more work! Tabbed previews mean that I can see all documents open in a multi-document/tabbed interface (if supported, of course). I can launch applications using the Start key plus the position of the icon:

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In this image, I can launch/switch to Sticky Notes with Start+1, Windows Messenger with Start+2, and so on. Much better than alt-tabbing or grabbing for that mouse.

I love the JumpList available by right-clicking taskbar icons:

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Instead of restoring the application and looking for a specific command, I can perform actions in a simple text list. This isn’t always the best interface, but I have the choice between the full UI and the JumpList. Many JumpList commands are even accessible when an application is closed.

I love the thumbnail toolbar. This allows you to show toolbar commands (simple buttons) right in the preview window:

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Applications like Windows Media Player or ZScreen (for screenshots) use this for easy access to commands. Unlike the JumpList, these are available only when the application is running. From a programmer’s point of view, these act like buttons, while the JumpList commands are actually shell shortcuts.

These taskbar features make it easier to launch and manage applications. Since launching and managing applications is a big part of using the system, making this easier can make a difference.

Enhanced Start menu

I love how the JumpLists are also shown in the Start menu. Even if you don’t pin the application to the taskbar, you can get access to the JumpList items without leaving the Start menu. The arrow pointing right can be hovered over to show Recent, Frequent, or other JumpLists. It’s handy and more targeted than using the Recents link.

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Finding recent documents is something you do on almost every session. For less-experienced users, this is the difference between “Where did I save that” and just starting it up.

Windows key functions

The Windows key has provided some nice shortcuts for some time. Win+D minimizes/restores all windows. Win+L locks the desktop. Win+R opens up the Run command. Win+Tab brings up Aero Flip task switching (starting with Vista). Now with Windows Vista, there are a few nice additional shortcuts. Pressing the Windows key with arrow keys causes the current window to jump to the left or right of the screen, or even to the screen to the left or right. Press the Windows key with the up arrow maximizes the window.

The coolest one though, especially for presentations, is Win+Plus. This brings up Windows Magnifier and makes it easy to zoom in and out (plus or minus).

Reaching for the mouse is a big no-no for me. The more time I can stay focused on the keyboard, the more productive I can be. Being able to even maximize an app without touching the mouse is a surprisingly big deal.

Aero Peek

If you hover over taskbar previews, the window shows on top even if it was behind. Any other windows show as an outline. If you hover over the bottom-right corner of the screen you can see the desktop background with outlines for all of the windows. This requires the mouse, but it’s still pretty handy to look something going on with a gadget (weather, headline, etc.).

Summary

None of these features makes Windows 7 a must-upgrade, but all together they create an easier way to get things done. Using the mouse less, having faster access to common actions, and better organization really makes a difference. When people ask me if they should upgrade, it really comes down to understanding their needs. If you spend a lot of time on the computer and need to be able to manage your applications and files smoothly, then it’s a good upgrade. If you don’t use it often, or things have been the same for ages anyway, then an upgrade might be more trouble than it’s worth. If you get it bundled with a new system, get used to it. As more application are enhanced for Windows 7, you’ll be glad you’re ready.

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