Tech Tutor Mark

In April, 2011, I did a presentation for the Computer Operators of Marysville & Port Huron (C.O.M.P) on the topic of Windows 7: Tips, Tricks & Tweaks .  C.O.M.P is a PC User Group, although it is not made up solely of PC users.  There are also some Mac and Linux users that make up the group.  For those who will not be able to attend, please feel free to download the PDF version of the presentation . Thanks to Fred Langa of Windows Secrets for providing some great material.  This was worth the membership.

By Becky Waring One of the best ways to increase your computing productivity doesn't cost a cent: learn the keyboard shortcuts for your most-used commands. To help you stop mousing around and become a keyboard maestro, I rounded up the best resources for finding, using, and creating shortcuts. Lincoln Spector struck a nerve with his Jan. 13 column , "Twenty-six ways to work faster in Windows 7." Many of those tips involved keyboard shortcuts. After all, almost any time you can use the keyboard instead of the mouse, you work faster. But there are lots more shortcuts where those came from. This article aims to show you where to find the ones that can speed up your workflow. In case you can't find the shortcuts you need, I'll show you how to create your own. You probably already know that you can invoke many menu and dialog-box items via the keyboard by pressing the Control or Alt key plus an underlined letter. For example, pressing Alt + F in m...

The Snipping Tool was introduced in Windows Vista for the first time and also exists in Windows 7 . With the Snipping Tool you can capture text, graphics, and any associated annotations and then save them in your desired format. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not defined a default keyboard shortcut for the Snipping Tool in Windows 7.  It’s a pain to have to dig into the Start menu to find the tool quickly. To create a keyboard shortcut for the Snipping Tool, use the steps below: 1. Go to Start , Accessories , right-click on Snipping Tool and select Properties . 2. Move to the Shortcut tab. 3. Select the Shortcut key box, and then press any desired key as your shortcut to the program.  For example, press the S key. 4. Windows will define the new shortcut to the Snipping Tool and will also add Ctrl + Alt as the prefix to the shortcut. 5.  If you have assigned the “ S ” key to Snipping Tool, then you will need to press Ctrl + Alt + S to launch it. 6. Click Apply ...

Classic Shell is a collection of features that were standard in Windows XP, but many of which are now missing from Windows 7 (and also from Vista).  Such features included in this package are Classic Start Menu, a toolbar for Windows Explorer, and a variety of skins and tweaks that can be customized. For instance, one of the changes in Windows 7 which really burns me is the removal of the toolbar buttons that previously existed in XP's Windows Explorer folders.  These buttons could be customized in Windows XP and even as far back as Windows 98.  You could right-click on the toolbar of any folder and chose "Customize" and then pick which buttons you wanted to display. Then, you could shift them up and down the toolbar so that they were located exactly where you wanted them.  Now, in Windows 7, this customization of folder toolbars is not possible.  That is where Classic Shell comes in.  It adds many of those missing toolbar buttons, plus a lot more.  ...