Windows Tools, Help & Guides

The windows Clipboard is where the computer temporarily stores text, files, graphics etc. that your CUT or COPY resides until you PASTE the content into its new location. Up until XP you could easily check the contents of your clipboard  using the ClipBoard Manager. For some blurry security reason Microsoft removed this nifty application in Vista and 7. If you miss this feature, fear not – the fix is a simple one. If you have access to a Windows XP installation (XP mode anyone ??)  you can copy it to your Windows 7 (or Vista) machine.

Here’s where to find it

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To make things easier (for the common user) Microsoft decided to Categorize the Control Panel view. I never could get used to the new categories view, thinking that some of the panel applets were in the wrong category. Instead, I always immediately switch back to the “Classic” Control Panel view.

I recently learned that you can re-arrange the category arrangement, making it appear just as YOU think it should. It does involve editing the registry, but I’m sure that won’t scare you … much.

This tweak is generally for PRO and ULTIMATE users, but you may still be able to tweak some of the Control Panel Applets on lower versions.

Open RegEdit

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Once in a while, one of your applications will lock up and you would have to kill it (in the good sense of the word). Of course this will cause you to lose any unsaved data. At least you will learn to save your work more often, right?

But wait, there is something you may try first … before shutting it down “ungracefully”…

Using RESMON

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Previously, we showed you where to download Windows 7 and how to burn it to disc, put it on a thumb drive, or boot from it while using your current Windows 7 installation: Download Windows 7 and Burn it to Disc/put it on a Thumb Drive [How To]

Having the whole operating system on disc isn’t necessary if you just need to repair your Windows installation. You should have a repair disc on hand to deal with the following situations:

• You’ve made a change to your PC and it now won’t boot into Windows.
• You get a message such as NTLDR is missing but your hard drive is healthy.
• You get a virus on your PC and need command line access to fix the issue.
• Windows starts to boot and then your PC power cycles.

In this guide, I show you:

• Where to download a Windows 7 or Windows Vista Repair Disc.
• How to make a Windows 7 repair disc yourself.
• How to make a Windows 7 repair USB drive.
• How to boot from a disc/USB drive and use it to repair your PC.

Note: A repair disc cannot be used to install Windows and provides no functionality beyond a Windows installation disc. If you already have an installation disc, you can use that for system recovery.

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Today, we bring you a quick tip with which you may or may not be familiar. On it’s own, this tip isn’t useful but this is a supporting guide for tutorials where you’re told to change a file extension without any explanation of how to show the extension (disabled by default in Vista and 7) in the first place.

This guide will show you how to show file extensions in Windows XP and Windows Vista/7.

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Do you frequently have the same folders open when using your PC? i.e. your My Documents, My Music, Homework folders etc? If you do, it may be a little tedious to open these folders when you log off and on or restart your computer.

Here’s a quick tip to restore these folders when you restart or log off and on.

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