PCTips Box

If you think that the first service pack for Windows Vista has managed to fix what was broken with the latest Windows client, think again. The same problems that were initially associated with the gold version of Vista have survived and moved on as the legacy of SP1. At the end of its first year of availability on the market, Vista had passed the 100 million sold license milestone, and according to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer, present at MIX08 the past week, the platform is the second most popular Windows operating system in the world, despite its long line of problems.

“I’m not saying that there aren’t things that customers choose to comment on. Come on, the number one issue we’ve had customers have issues on were application compatibility and driver compatibility. (more…)

Taskbar thumbnail preview in Windows Vista is a great new feature that allows you to quickly see a window without having to fully open it from the taskbar. Instead, you can just hover your mouse over the taskbar item and a small preview window will be displayed.

I have been asked many times if it is possible customize the size of the preview thumbnails. Many have expressed the desire to have larger previews so they can better see the window. Finally, I have found a way.

Using a free utility written by Andreas Verhoeven called Thumbnail Sizer, it is very easy to customize the preview size. (more…)

Does your Windows XP take endless long to Shutdown? This is mainly because whenever you attempt to shutdown Windows XP, it will wait for all running applications to close. If they stop responding, you’ll get the end task warnings and you either manually kill the task or wait for Windows to kill it.

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So, little Suzie had her big recital, and you brought the new camcorder and tripod, enduring “Who does this guy think he is, Spielberg?” stares from other parents (and likely your spouse). Now it’s time for your big reward: You get to show the world the gorgeous new video of your future American Idol winner. You finish up the basic video editing, adjusting color, cutting dead air, making transitions if you’re into that sort of thing. But the world isn’t waiting for you to send it DVD copies, leaving you to wonder, “How the heck do I get this to all her adoring fans?”

To get your video into shape for iPod and YouTube distribution, start in your video-editing program. I used Adobe Premiere Elements in the directions below; it’s our reigning Editors’ Choice among consumer video-editing apps. (more…)

The Default Programs item on the new Start menu makes uncovering important settings far easier than it was in XP. (more…)

If you’ve become used to surfing your Program Menu to get to applications, you’ll be in for a shock when you first use Microsoft Windows Vista. The new Program Menu shows you only recently used applications and requires extra clicks to navigate to submenus. I found this very frustrating until I realized that the Search box Microsoft has added to the Start menu is a great replacement—as long as you’re an accurate typist. As quickly as you can type, it returns intelligent results in apps, files, and even e-mail ­messages

You’re already running the essential apps for your business and are ready to try out some of the latest tools so you can really supercharge things. The collection of products in this story can get you started.

Web-based PBX services, VoIP, and Wi-Fi phones can save you bundles on telecom costs. With one of the latest printers you can be your own copy shop, printing glossy flyers, posters, and banners. A blog or a wiki can improve communications with colleagues and clients. Online backup services can safely and inexpensively store your critical data. With a Web-based meeting service, you can get together with colleagues and clients while saving on travel costs. (more…)

Want to jazz up your desktop?  Well there are two great apps that allow you to make your own free video screensavers.
The first one is ‘My Video Screen Saver‘ which supports the following features:

. Plays AVI, MPEG, WMV video files as a screen saver
. Displays videos randomly
. Allows the volume of each video to be adjusted
. Allows videos to be previewed from the settings window
. Adjust videos to 100%, 150% or 200% for each file
. Runs on all Windows operating systems
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