The World of Windows

Keyboard Shortcuts for Committed Mouse Abolitionists. Let’s kick off this power-user party with keyboard shortcuts—tricks every enthusiast should memorize when mastering a new OS. We’re confident the following time-saving keystrokes will save you precious neural processing cycles, and make your mouse jealous with neglect. Alt + P In Windows Explorer, this shortcut activates a preview pane of your selected file, be it an image, sound, or video document. This panel is great for previewing images in your photos directory, obviating the need for fancier third-party software. Windows + Up and Windows + Down If a window isn’t maximized, pressing the Windows + Up arrow key willmake it fill your entire screen. Windows + Down arrow will minimize that active window. Windows + Shift + Up and Windows + Shift + Down Hitting these three keys will vertically stretch an active window tothe maximum desktop height (the width of the window, however, will staythe same). Pressing Windows + Shift+ ...

Clean Install from Inside Windows, Step by Step If you initiate the Setup routine from within Windows XP or Windows Vista, the step-by-step procedure is as follows: 1. Insert the Windows 7 DVD into your computer's DVD-ROM drive. It should AutoPlay and present the Install Windows dialog box. If not, locate and double-click the setup.exe program in the Sources folder on the DVD. 2. To download, install, and use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, click the Check Compatibility Online link. Otherwise, to begin the in-place upgrade to Windows 7, click the Install Now link. 3. In the Get Important Updates for Installation dialog box, you are asked whether you want to download updates to the Windows 7 install files. Typically, for computers that have an active Internet connection, you're better off getting the updates. Make your selection by clicking it. 4. In the Please Read the License Terms dialog box, ensure that you read and understand the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA). ...

If you're ready to take Microsoft's new OS for a spin, this guide can helpPerforming a New Installation of Windows 7 The three basic types of clean installation procedures are as follows: • Install on a brand new disk or computer system • Erase the disk, format it, and install • Install into a new directory for dual-booting (see the multiboot discussion later) If you intend to use either of the first two methods, be sure your computer can boot from a DVD (most newer computers support booting from a DVD drive). Doing so might require changing the drive boot order in the BIOS or CMOS, but try it first as-is. With no floppy disk inserted and a clean hard disk, try the DVD drive next. The Windows 7 DVD is bootable and should run the Setup program automatically. Installation takes 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the speed of your machine. Refer to the following sections if you have questions about any steps in this process. Note: Windows 7 automatically applies the N...

Bored of your default Windows Media Player Skins?. Grab some fresh and new Windows Media Player 12 themes for Windows 7 ! Windows Media Player 12 Codecs Windows Media Player 12 comes with support for DivX and MP4, but it still lacks supports for many other video formats. (amr | mpc | ofr | divx | mka | ape | flac | evo | flv | m4b | mkv | ogg | ogv | ogm | rmvb | xvid)ù A popular codec pack can be downloaded here and here . Windows Media Player 12 Skins The following skin packages includes some really awesome themes for your Windows Media Player: Alienware Theme Batman Theme Catwoman Theme Darkstar Theme Half-Life Theme Halo 2 Theme The Last Samurai Theme Stalker Theme XBOX Theme XSN Sports Them Download Windows Media Player Themes Pack 1 (70 Skins) Download Windows Media Player Themes Pack 2 (12 Skins) New Year Theme 2010 for Windows 7 This theme can be downloaded for free from uploaded.to Custom Search If you liked this article, subscribe t...

The union of open source software into the Windows market is becoming ever more commonplace. So I've compiled another, albeit short list, of some of my latest favorites. All of these are great products for the IT pro that rival their commercial counterparts and come with that loveable, open-source price. Zenoss Core IT pros need to monitor their networks and applications but it can be a costly endeavor. There are lots of alternatives to the commercial packages on the market and I blog about them frequently. Even still, Zenoss Core is a project that not only caught my attention but seems to be one of the darlings of the entire open source software (OSS) community. Sourceforge.net gives it a sixth place overall ranking and with good reason. Zenoss Core is an easy to manage, easy to read monitoring tool with lots of features. I downloaded the VMware file, powered it on and was ready to go in no time. The dashboard style was easy to learn and the core product handles most of what yo...