Note: This guide is written for Windows 7 but most tips apply for Windows Vista

Save Battery Power

Here are some ways to save your battery’s power. You don’t need to apply all these tips but every little helps.

1. Turn Down Screen Brightness

To turn down screen brightness, click the battery icon in the system tray and click Adjust screen brightness.

Slide the brightness slider to the left until you can comfortably see the screen and it’s dimmest setting.

2. Cut Down on Background Applications

Many background applications don’t need to run and only increase CPU cycles and, in turn, the demand on your battery. Here’s a couple of things you can do to cut down on background applications:

2a. Disable Windows Sidebar Gadgets

If you don’t use the sidebar, you probably have it disabled already (right click the Windows Sidebar icon in the system tray and click Exit.)

If you use the Windows Sidebar, do you really need all your gadgets running when you’re on battery power? To disable Windows Sidebar gadgets:

Click the Start button and click Control Panel. Type gadget in the top-right search box, and click View list of running gadgets.

Next to the running gadgets, click remove.

2b. Diable Startup applications

To disable uneccessary startup applications, follow this guide.

3. Disable Your Wireless Internet & Bluetooth

If you’re not using the internet or Bluetooth, consider disabling the hardware to save battery power. To disable your wireless, bluetooth, or both cards, either:

A. Locate the switch on the side of your laptop (many now have this) and turn your wirelesss cards off.

or

B. Click the network icon in the system tray and click Open Network and Sharing Center.

In the left-hand menu, click Change adapter settings.

Right click your wireless connection and click Disable.

Repeat for your Bluetooth device.

4. Disable Screensavers

Screensavers use CPU when your PC is idle. To disable your screensaver:

Right click the Desktop and click Personalize.

Click Screen Saver.

In the drop down list, select (None) and click OK.

5. Change Power Options

You what your computer does to save power when idle. To do so, click the battery icon in the system tray and click More power options.

Select Power saver and click Change plan settings.

Lower the time it takes for your computer to dim the display, turn off the display, and sleep when on battery.

Click Change advanced power settings to fine tune your power-saving preferences.

6. Adjust Visual Effects

Visual effects also use CPU and memory and this drains your battery. To lower the effects and save battery power:

Click the Start button, click Control Panel, and type visual in the top-right search box. Click Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows.

Select Adjust for best performance and click OK.

7. Turn off Windows Aero

Windows Aero enables the glass effect you see on your Windows. This (surprise surprise) also uses CPU and memory and should be disabled to save battery. To disable Windows Aero:

Right click the desktop and click Personalization. Click Window Color.

Uncheck Enable transparency and click OK.

8. Disable the Search Index

The search index indexes your files for quick searching. This is a convenience but comes at a great cost to battery life when it’s running. To save power, consider disabling the search index. To disable the search index:

Click the Start button, click Control Panel, and type index in the top-right search box. Click Change how Windows searches.

Click Modify.

Remove all locations by unchecking them and click OK.

9. Keep Your PC Cool

The hotter your PC gets, the harder your fans have to work to keep it cool. To minimize the power drawn by your fans, keep your PC cool. If using it on your lap or on a pillow, ensure there is proper ventilation. Never use your PC on a blanket or soft surface where airflow is restricted. This will also keep your hardware working longer as hardware is less likely to overheat and fail.

10. Only Use Your Screen When You Need it

This tip links back to tip number 5. When in the power options, click Choose what closing the lid does. I always set the lid closing to do nothing and the power button to put the laptop to sleep. This way, when I’m taking a break, I can put my laptop lid down (which turns off the display and saves power) without my laptop going to sleep. I’m also lucky because my laptop has a Display button that, when pressed, turns off my display. I found this button very useful when I sat in class and didn’t need to use my laptop but didn’t want to close and open the lid repeatedly.

11. Disable Automatic Program Updates

Many programs like iTunes, Java etc. come with their own auto updating software. These programs frequently communicate with update servers and, collectively, can take a toll on battery life. It’s important to keep software up to date; however, you should consider disabling update checkers for software installed on your PC. Good software lets you disable this behavior when you install it; some software may require a little bit of digging to disable automatic update checking.

Here’s how to stop Java checking for updates:

Click the Start button and click Control Panel. When the Control Panel loads, type java in the search box, and click Java:

On the Update tab, uncheck Check for Updates Automatically:

Click Never Check:

Note: I’ve noticed the scheduled task for Java update checking is often left behind.

To remove the task:

Click the Start button, type task, and click on Task Scheduler

When the task Scheduler loads, click Task Scheduler Library in the left pane

In the right pane, look for the Java Update task, right click it, and click Disable:

12. Remove Peripherals and Media

CDs spinning in drives, external hard disk drives, memory cards in slots, and even a plugged in USB thumb drives all drain power at varying levels. Remove all external drives, cards, and CDs to save battery power and the life of your machine.

13. Add more RAM

I just added 1GB of RAM to a netbook and I noticed the battery life is quite a lot better. This is because when you run out of memory, application data is written to the hard disk (virtual memory), which requires the movement of mechanical parts and not just electrons alone. By adding RAM to a computer that is always swapping/thrashing, you’ll save a noticeable about of battery life.

14. Use Hibernate not Sleep/Standby

If you want good battery life that spans multiple sessions, consider hibernating your PC instead of putting it to sleep/on stand by mode. Hibernation mode stores all volatile memory on disk and requires less power than leaving volatile memory in RAM for quick access when you turn your PC on. You can easily use a whole battery in two weeks or less of sleep mode, so you could be losing around 10% of battery life each day your laptop is sleeping instead of hibernating (if you’re not using hybrid sleep mode.) For more details on sleep vs hibernate, visit this guide.

To hibernate your PC, click the Start button, click the arrow next to Shut Down, and click Hibernate:

If you do not see the option to hibernate, press the Windows Key + R (or click Start > Run), type the following, and press Enter:

powercfg -h on

If the option is still not available, a reboot is required to show the Hibernate option on the start menu.

Bonus Tip

To get a power efficiency report:

1. Click Start, type CMD, right click cmd.exe and click Run as Administrator.
2. On the command line, type powercfg -energy to view a power efficiency report.

[I'd like] an explanation on i3, i5, i7 Operating Systems, and how they compare with Core 2 and Quad Core CPUs.

Update: Manuel commented asking the following:

It seems core2 duo CPUs have not been included and where they belong.  Are core 2 duo CPUs comparable with i3s or even i5s?  thanks.

Scroll down or click here for the answer.

If you’re in the market to buy a PC and you’re looking for the best value for money, you’ve likely asked yourself: “what’s the difference between Dual and Quad Core and what about i3, i5, and i7?”

This guide offers a basic explanation of these five types of processors and will help you determine the best for your needs.

This guide will answer the following questions:

• What is a processor?
• What is a core?
• What is a multi-core processor?
• Why do I need multiple cores?
• How many cores do i3, i5, and i7′s have?
• How Do Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad Compare with Core i3, i5, and i7?
• What Does the “i” Stand for in i3, i5, and i7?
• Do I need a Dual/Quad core or an i3/i5/i7?

What is a Processor?

The Processor or Central Processing Unit (CPU) component of your PC that carries out instructions given to it by your Operating System (Windows.) Think of the processor as a brain that receives instructions and messages (i.e. “HOT HOT HOT Burning!!!”) and sends out instructions to other hardware (i.e. “Arm: lift hand” or “mouth: open; vocal chords: scream”.)

What is a Core?

A standard processor has one core (single-core.) Single core processors only process one instruction at a time (although they do use pipelines internally, which allow several instructions to be processed together; however, they are still run one at a time.)

What is a Multi-Core Processor?

A multi-core processor is composed of two or more independent cores, each capable of processing individual instructions. A dual-core processor contains two cores, a quad-core processor contains four cores, and a hexa-core processor contains six cores.

Why do I Need Multiple Cores?

Multiple cores can be used to run two programs side by side and when an intensive program is running (AV Scan, Video conversion, CD ripping etc.) you can utilize another core to run your browser to check your email etc.

Multiple cores really shine when you’re using a program that can utilize more than one core (called Parallelization) to improve the program’s efficiency. Programs such as graphic software, games etc. can run multiple instructions at the same time and deliver faster, smoother results.

So if you use CPU-intensive software, multiple cores will likely provide a better experience when using your PC. If you use your PC to check emails and watch the occasional video, you really don’t need a multi-core processor.

How many cores do i3, i5, and i7′s have?

• A Dual-core processor has two cores.
• A Quad-core processor has four cores.
• An i3 processor has 2 cores.
• An i5 processor has 2 or 4 cores (depending on the model you have.)
• An i7 processor has 2, 4 or 6 cores (depending on the model you have.)

How Do Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad Compare with Core i3, i5, and i7?

Added 2012/01/21:

If you’re looking for a good value PC and have decided on a Core 2 Duo, Core i3, or Core i5 (all best in value for casual computer use), please read on:

Core 2 Duo processors run two threads; i3′s and i5′s run four threads. Core 2 Duo processors are socket 775 (45/65nm); Core i3 and i5 processors are socket 1156 (nm) but only work with DDR3 RAM (Some Core 2 Duo’s work with both DDR2 and DDR3.)

For desktops, I’d stay clear of core 2 duos; for laptops, it all depends on your usage. As laptops aren’t as easy to upgrade, buying dated technology might burn you in the future when you find your Core 2 Duo PC’s motherboard only supports 4GB RAM–for example.

i5′s come with “turbo boost”; however, i3′s overclock very well if that’s your thing. That’s where I’d put my money if you’re considering Core 2 Duo, i3, and i5: the i3 provides the best value for most casual PC users.

While I focused on i3, i5, and Core 2 Duo to answer a reader’s question, the principles apply when comparing i5, i7, and Core 2 Quad. I’d go for the i5 unless you are willing to pay a premium for a little more performance.

What Does the “i” Stand for in i3, i5, and i7?

Added 2012/03/03:

I searched around the web and found speculation that the “i” stands for “Intel”; however, there’s no substantiation to that claim. After coming up with no explanation, I sent an email to Intel tech support. Here’s what they had to say (emphasis added):

Hello Rich,

Thank you for contact Intel(R) Technical Support.

We have received your request. Please be informed that the letter ‘i’ on the model number of the Processor does not stand for any particular detail, technology or feature presented on the product.

This is just a marketing brand name decision. For any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us back.

Thank you for your understading (sic).

Sincerely,

Alvaro A.
Intel Customer Support

The i# processors are just branded that way with no special meaning.

Do I need a Dual/Quad core or an i3/i5/i7?

The reason you’re reading this guide is to find out which type of processor you need. I want to give a simple answer and, if you have more to add, please let us know in the comments. As with all computer hardware, the type of processor you need depends on your needs, for how long you want your computer to stay current, and your budget.

Here’s a very simple breakdown of what you should look to buy depending on your computing needs. All suggestions assume you are buying a pre-built PC (so you don’t have to worry about motherboard and RAM specs and so you don’t have to worry about upgrade compatibility.)

If you:

• Browse the internet, check email, and play the occasional flash game (like Farmville): Get a single core netbook or desktop (and don’t spend more than $300 USD — Updated 12/01/21.)
• Do your word processing, spreadsheets etc. on your PC, listen to music often, and watch movies, get a dual core or i3.
• Play the occasional game and are happy with lower resolution and lower quality graphics (my suggestion assumes the graphics processor on the pre-built PC will be well-matched for the processor suggestions), watch HD movies etc., get a dual core or i5.
• If you do graphic publishing, music creation, programming (and compilation), watch HD movies, and like to play visually appealing games, get a Quad core, i5, or i7.
• If you like to have the very best hardware and play the most graphically intense games, get an i7 Extreme.

I realise my suggestions are somewhat generic but should point you in the right direction. If you have a specific question, ask in the forums or leave a comment below.

So… What Computer Should I Purchase?

Added 2012/03/02:

Recently, a number of you have commented asking what computer to buy. As I’m not familiar with all brands, models, and current pricing, I ask that you post your question in Windows Forums where our group of helpful PC geeks will assist in making the choice that’s best for you. Not sure how to use a forum? Start here: How to get great help from Windows Forums.

In my last article (An Explanation of the Pros and Cons of Using RAID on Your Computer), we discussed the problem of heat build-up during the very hot Auckland summer months and how a RAID 5 configuration with 4 disks can sustain the failure of a single disk. RAID protections provide one part of what should be an overall strategy to protect your data and your computer from heat.

In this piece we divert a bit from our standard hardware/software fare and look at the computing environment as a whole. We will postulate that a tidy workspace is, in fact, a happy workspace and suggest a few tricks to make your work-space more productive and more comfortable.

The three biggest factors driving the design of my workspace are heat, noise and clutter. If I can minimise these three and maximize my computing power and productivity (all within family budget constraints, of course), I will have archived the objective.

The three primary physical components available for modification are the room, the cabinet and the PC (also referred to as the Box or Tower).

The Room:

The ideal design would be a copy of a corporate computer room with climate control, raised floor and glass interior walls. Your computers would be rack-mounted and networked throughout your house with a patch panel to distribute computer services to every room.

If you’ve got the resources, and your wife will let you do it – please do.

The rest of us are probably stuck with a home office which is usually a converted bedroom, and we don’t have a lot of latitude for change.

My office has several problems that affect my productivity.

• It gets messy
• It gets hot
• and It gets noisy

As I get older I find it more and more important to keep my resources organised. So much stuff had accumulated in my office that I was spending more time looking for a resource than I was actually using it. Problem area #1 was first on my hit list. It is also made up of several components:

• Tools and parts and papers lying about
• Wires connecting the various bits of equipment
• Three out of five times the part or tool I needed was elsewhere

Number 1 has been the easiest to tackle with a quick fix. I’ve instituted a “no shop work” policy and banned all of my “project” tools back to the workshop in the garage. Additionally, I’ve developed an exit strategy that requires me to tidy up the office each night so I can hit the ground running in the morning.

To reduce the clutter and improve the look of the room a good part of the project was dedicated to removing or hiding all the visible wires.

Capping:

Ok, I confess, this picture is a bit staged and I wish I’d taken more pictures of the mess before blasting through with a clean-up, but you get the idea and probably have a scene like this of your own very much like it.

Capping is a square pipe tacked against the floorboard with a snap-on cover. Just tack the 3-sided part against the wall where you need it, run the wire inside, and then snap on the cover. Not quite as tidy as running the wire through the wall, but you need special tools and know-how to accomplish that. Capping is sold in a variety of sizes.

A big advantage to capping is that the cover can be removed and the wiring reconfigured to meet changing conditions.

Under the Carpet:

Depending on the size of your wire and size of the gap between the carpet and the molding, a thin wire can often be hidden in that space. Speaker wire is a good candidate for this, coaxial wire less so.

The wire can be pushed into the gap with almost anything that isn’t sharp (don’t use a fork for example). A chopstick is my tool of choice, there are more dangerous options …

Whenever you need to go under the carpet, always stay as close to the wall as possible – even the thinnest speaker wire will produce a lump.

Over the Roof:

In some circumstances a wire on the roof might be the best plan. The wire obviously needs to be of a grade that can withstand outdoor conditions, and any joins require extra weather- and water-proofing. Just be sure to tack it down securly. The tacks (below) are a good option as is hot glue or silicon. Don’t want the wire making any noise on a windy night.

Exterior wiring will eventually need to extend back into a room, a terminating plate (like the one shown above) is easy to install and gives the work a professional look.

Power Leads:

Mounting a power board on the back of a unit or on a nearby wall can give the appearance of order and the excess cable can be gathered and secured above the floor with cable ties, rubber bands, whatever, but a word of caution here, don’t wind up a big length of mains extension wire and leave it on the floor – it becomes a magnetic coil, heats up and bursts into flames.

Power leads emit radiation that can interfere with voice, data and video communication. As a general rule it’s best to keep the two types of cable separate. If you must run the two together and you get interference on the com lines, investigate shielded com lines as an alternative.

Many power boards have mounting holes on the back side of the board. In my experience these holes are very hard to line up correctly. Instead I’ll drill through those holes as they seem to be located in positions that avoid any internal wires and mount the board with screws drilled in from the front. Be sure to counter-sink the holes so that the top of the screw is flush with the board face and doesn’t interfere with any plugs.

Vanity Panel:

Basically it’s a large sheet of material that acts to cover the ugly stuff behind it

If you’ve run wiring through your desk some wires may hang down and look at bit messy, you can tidy these wires behind a panel to hide them from view. If you put this panel on hinges or make it easily removable you will still have plenty of flexibility should an equipment change be required.

You can do the same thing with walls

an inexpensive noticeboard did the trick here. I re-wired the power lead on my “Cent-o-Meter” to feed directly into the box eliminating the plug, and pinned the USB lead on my Weather Centre behind the board so it doesn’t show up quite so much.

Capping on Steroids:

In my particular situation a large number of cables must be run from the desk where my keyboard mouse and monitors are to the computer cabinet where my 2 PCs live crossing a space of clear carpet about a metre wide.

The solution shown below is a section of white square box down pipe attached to the wall with 2 screws. The shot above gives some indication of the wiring that would otherwise be exposed. A curtain rod is used to thread the cables from one end to the other.

In this picture you can also see another important tool in cable management – the white tags indicating what is at the far end. They are a bit pricey – $4.00 (US) for a pack of 24 but they can save you time and frustration when you are tracking down a fault in your system.

Cable Tidies:

There is a variety of gizmos available to help you in this effort. Number one is a pieces of 2 – 4 meters plastic tube split down the middle, into which a special installation tool can placed that will enable you to cover and contain a collection of wires. One big wire is easier work with (and looks better) than a bunch of smaller wires.

Number 2 is simple and free, although perhaps best suited to storing unused cables.

Number 3 – This “handcuff” looking device works like one too to clamp a number of loose cables in a single large thread.

Number 4 – These holders are fixed to the desk or the wall and hold a group of wires in place.

Number 5 – Velcro. Fairly expensive, but very re-usable

And lastly, Number 6 comes from the garden store. It’s a simple spool of light wire with a built-in cutter at the base. Intended for flowers, the wire does a good job on quick, temporary jobs.

Having a clean and tidy workspace may not be for everyone – it requires a little more work and a bit of discipline and may not, in the end, enhance your productivity. I’ve worked under my new regime for about a month now and I think I’m a bit more productive, but I know it keeps my wife happy and I find thinking about going in to my office to work a more pleasant experience.

But I won’t claim a final victory now. As with the currently accepted scientific theory: it’s only true until it’s not. In our next episode we’ll look at heat and noise.

In our next chapter we’ll take a look the storage cabinet and modifications to the PCs – both designed to improve system cooling.

In this article you will discover a neat way to summarize data across Excel sheets without having to reference each of them. This technique will work even if you add a new sheet.

Defining a Range of Sheets

Consider the following example: The fictitious expense reports for the equally fictitious XYZ Widget Company’s various offices. Each sheet in the workbook contains the expense data for each of the company’s offices. Below you can see the expense data for the New-York office:

The Expenses workbook holds a similar sheet for the Chicago and LA offices.

Now, let’s create a total expense report in the worksheet called ‘Country Wide Expenses’. The sheet already exists, but we have to actually fill it with data:

We’ll use the SUM function to add the contents of the corresponding cells on each sheet by doing the following:

• We’ll select cell B5
• Then we’ll type in =SUM(
• We’ll click on the NYC Office worksheet tab and Excel will add ‘NYC Office’! to the formula in the formula bar
• We’ll then click on cell B5 in the ‘NYC Office’ sheet and B5 will be added to the formula, so now, the formula bar will show: =SUM(‘NYC Office’!B5
• Finally, while holding the Shift key, we’ll click on the ‘Chicago Office’ tab; this will insert a range of sheets into the formula which will be shown in the formula bar in the following way:

=SUM(‘NYC Office:Chicago Office’!B5

• We’ll finish up the formula by closing the parenthesis and pressing the Enter key

Excel will return to the ‘Country Wide Expenses’ sheet, and this is what we get:

What we did here was to create a range of cells across sheets. Pretty neat isn’t it?

Excel uses the colon sign – : – as the range marker; if put between two cell references, Excel will consider the reference to be for all the cells in the range. For example, A1:B3 contains 6 cells: A1, A2, A3, B1, B2 and B3. But when the colon sign is found between worksheet names, the range covers all the sheets between the names, so in our case, the range includes cell B5 on all the office expenses sheets (as we selected the first and last one).

Drag to Fill

All that’s left is to use the same formula to fill up the table:

• We’ll grab the fill handle and drag it to the right so it will cover the 12 month columns of the table
• Then we’ll grab the fill handle again and drag it down so it will cover the whole table

And so we’re done in about a minute of work:

Summary

In this article we’ve dealt with using ranges across worksheets which is a very powerful but rarely used technique. It is also important to remember that this technique is not limited to the SUM function; it works with every Excel function that handles ranges. You can use it to average data, find the lowest or the highest number across sheets and much more.

About the Author: Joseph Reese is the founder of Excel-Formulas.com an Excel consulting firm.Head over to his website if you want to improve your performance with Excel.

Last week, we shared some commands you can run (from the Run box/Start menu) that can save you time and get you to the tools you need quickly. If you missed it, here it is: Use Start Menu/Run Dialog Commands to Access Windows Programs and Tools.

This week, we’ll point you to some of our previously-written guides that include keyboard shortcuts that you can use in Windows and in a couple of popular programs. If we’re missing any shortcuts or programs with shortcuts, let us know in the comments.

• General Windows Shortcut Keys

• Shortcut Key Combinations that Use the Windows Key

• Microsoft Word Shortcut Keys

• Windows Photo Gallery Shortcut Keys

• Mozilla Firefox Shortcut Keys

What other shortcuts do you use?

Windows Guides’ Rating	User Rating	Compatible with	System
4.5 out of 5	Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Screenpresso Features

If you are dealing with some tasks that require you to take a lot of screenshots (for example: a software application engineer who is responsible to look for bugs and test software), a simple but full-featured screen capture tool is necessary.

By the term simple, I mean the entire screen capture experience has to be natural so that the user can start using it right away without much exploring. Of course, if a really simple screen capture is needed, we can just opt for the Print Screen button on the keyboard. However, for advanced tasks with screenshots, like annotation and sharing, a full-featured application is needed. There are already plenty of screen capture tools for Windows that have the criteria mentioned, but most of them doesn’t come with a friendly price tag. If you are looking for a cheap (or should I say free?) alternative, there is only one program that is simple but full featured: introducing LearnPulse’s Screenpresso.

It has the best screen capture user experience

I have been using Screenpresso for screen capturing tasks ever since it was first released in 2009, and it keeps improving. I’ve tried numerous screen capture tools, and I must say Screenpresso provides the best screen capture user experience – and all my colleagues will definitely agree on this. If you have already used to press Print Screen button for screen capturing, Screenpresso will change your user experience in no time.

Screenpresso in action.

After you have installed Screenpresso, press the Print Screen button, and you will see how Screenpresso magically assists you in screen capture. As you can see in the screenshot above (OK, I admit that I didn’t capture this screen using Screenpresso), the mouse cursor will turn into a crosshair, and moving it around the screen will automatically highlight the area that can be captured in red. It does some pretty cool edge snapping to the screen, so you can choose to capture part of a window, or the entire window, or even the whole screen. Notice the zoom lens at the right bottom of the screen? It is really useful if you require a pixel-perfect screen capture, and it tells you the pixel size that’s highlighted. Besides that, Screenpresso does a very good job of capturing the window with clean Aero glass, but of course you can easily disable this feature in the settings. Want to capture a long webpage into a single image? No problem, thanks to the smart stitching mechanism in Screenpresso.

Which is better? The left or the right?

All of these features seem pretty simple, but a combination of them create an unrivaled user experience, in a free product. But there’s more …

It has a Powerful Built-in Editor

Applying annotation to the screenshots is both fun and efficient in Screenpresso. It has a very simple but powerful editor which allows you to do tons of editing, such as commenting, adding arrows etc. and you can even blur a region easily. One of the best features in the Screenpresso editor is their Add Image function. The developers have done a great job by providing users useful and ready-to-use images (check both the screenshots above for examples.) All are done in Screenpresso’s  built-in editor, without charging a single cent. Impressive?

Capture Sharing is Easier than Ever

Tons of sharing option. Screen captured with branding.

Besides providing great user experience and powerful editor, LearnPulse has also attempted to make sharing of screenshots easier. They have included numerous options for you to share screenshots easily; as you can see in the screenshot above. If you are not keen on using any services provided, you can just simply drag-and-drop the screenshots from the history to email or file-explorer for more sharing options. If you notice the screenshot above, there is some branding done on the screenshot, but this will only apply when you are using certain sharing options provided in Screenpresso, though I don’t find it intrusive at all in the screenshot. For the features that has the branding enabled, check their features list of Screenpresso.

It is a Portable Application

This great tool is not only available for your personal computer; it can be used as a portable application on a public computer as well. On the first run of the Screenpresso installer which can be found here, it will allow you to run it directly without installation, or install on the computer if you wish. This can provide high flexibility and the user is able to run it virtually in any Windows-based computers – another great user experience.

Screenpresso allows you to run as portable app, or install on your computer.

And … it has good customer support

I believe a good program without good support from the developer will not be success–most of the time. Learnpulse is always ready to listen to the users’ comments, complaints and suggestions, and they can be reached easily via their official Twitter account. I once suggested them to add a curvy line/arrow tools in their editor (after my colleague asked me about it) and they responded that they will add my suggestion to their ‘to do’ list – it’s pretty sweet if you ask me.

With the latest release in 2011 (version 1.2.1.4 at the time of writing), LearnPulse has looked into video capturing in Screenpresso. Although the free version can only capture a tiny 15 seconds video with branding. There is a Screenpresso Pro version which costs $28 (at time of writing) that removes all the brandings and has full length video capture. However, since it is a new feature, there aren’t any extra functions for the captured video besides sharing; however, I believe LearnPulse is working hard to improve Screenpresso to become the best screen and video capture tool for Windows.

If you looking for a great screen capture tool at no cost, look no further, try Screenpresso and you will be amazed!

Download Screenpresso

Download Screenpresso

As all screens are not created equal, which is why Microsoft have bundled a display color calibration tool with Windows 7. This tool is easy to use and this guide serves as a checklist for using it.

You should use this tool if:

• You’ve not calibrated your screen yet.
• You’ve changed monitors (even if it was calibrated with another computer.)

Calibrate Your Display Color

To calibrate your display color:

Click Start, type calib and click Calibrate display color.

Click Next as you read and work through each screen:

Before the test, you should reset your monitor to factory settings. Each monitor is different but most have a Menu button located on the front or on the side of the monitor. Refer to the user manual for your monitor to learn how to change settings.

I use a Dell S2209W, which has the following interface:

You will be asked to compare sample images to help you adjust settings during the calibration. I’m not sure how useful these are if your gamma is way off and you’re being asked to use them as a benchmark but they should give you a good idea of what you’re going for.

You should adjust the brightness and contrast on your display (avoid skipping this for optimal results):

Here are the settings on my Dell monitor:

The following screens are shown to you to help you optimize your display.

Brightness:

Contrast:

Color balance:

Once complete, you can accept the changes you made to Windows’ color calibration or revert to previous settings.

You will then be taken to the ClearType Tuner, which is covered, in more detail, here: ClearType Tuner.

Did the calibration improve your display at all? What tips do you have for calibration? Let us know in the comments.

New to using the command prompt? Check out the Windows Command Prompt Beginner’s Guide

Previously we showed you a collection of shortcut commands you can use, to save you time, from the run dialog and Thomas showed you tips to become a command prompt superuser.

In this guide, we’ll show you some commands you can use on the Windows Command prompt. These commands can save you time if you learn how to use them and rely on them to help you manage your PC.

Not sure how to get to the command prompt? How to open the command prompt in Windows.

Want to customize the command prompt? Customize the appearance of the command prompt.

Want to get more comfortable using the command prompt? Become a Command Prompt Super User

Windows Commands

I’ve divided the commands into the following two sections:

• Commands to find system information.
• Commands to maintain your PC.

At any time, you can enter the command and succeed it with a /? to find out the list of parameters you can use with the command i.e. driverquery /?

You can also output the results of a command to a text file, csv etc. by adding >>out.txt or >>output.csv etc to the end of a command. The file will be saved in the current working directory (listed next to the command line.)

Commands to Find System Information

systeminfo

The systeminfo command will give you detailed system information. You can select specific information i.e. Virtual memory with the following syntax:

systeminfo |find "Virtual Memory"

More information on systeminfo.

tasklist

Want to see a list of running tasks? The tasklist command will show you all tasks running on your PC.

More information on tasklist.

ipconfig

The ipconfig /all command will show you information about TCP/IP information on your PC. Here I show you how to use ipconfig to fix your internet connection.

More information on ipconfig.

netstat

Angel explores netstat, ipconfig, and other basic network commands in this post: Basic Network Commands and their Usage [Introduction].

More information on netstat.

driverquery

Curious about what drivers are currently installed on your PC? Use driverquery to see the list. The output is a little vague so you may need to use the /v parameter to get more detailed information.

More information on driverquery.

openfiles

Want to know which files are open and by which programs? Want to know which network shares are mapped and by which PC? Run the openfiles command to view this information. The output will likely be pretty large, so you can output it to a CSV file with the following syntax:

openfiles /query /fo csv >>out.csv

More information on openfiles.

Commands to Maintain Your PC

You can also maintain your PC with commands. Here are just a few examples:

taskkill

taskkill is used to kill tasks that are hung or that you just want to kill. There some switches that allow forceful task killing (/f) etc.

Example syntax:

taskkill /im chrome.exe /f

The above command forcefully kills Google Chrome.

More information on taskkill.

rexec

The rexec command authenticates you on a remote PC and lets you run commands. Want to defrag a PC remotely? Use the following syntax:

rexec GVD defrag D: /F

GVD is the name of the remote PC in this example.

More information on rexec.

subst

subst maps a folder to a drive. If, for example you want to make the Windows folder the W drive, run the following command:

subst W: C:\windows

More information on subst.

shutdown

Want to shutdown your PC or a remote PC? Want to leave a nice message and specify how long the computer will wait before shutting down? Use the following syntax:

shutdown /t 20 /m \\GVD /c "20 seconds till shutdown"

This will shutdown PC “GVD” 20 seconds from the time the command is run.

More information on shutdown.

Create a Batch File of Any Command

If you want to automate a command (i.e. run it on a schedule, on startup, shutdown etc.) you should create a batch file. Use the following syntax in your .bat file.

%windir%\System32\cmd.exe /c "ipconfig /all"

If you want to see the output of the command, add PAUSE to the end of the batch file.

What commands did I miss? Do you have any other commands you use on a regular basis?

Owner of an Intel Processor? Problems with your CPU? Maybe you have checked every component of your computer and you don’t know what is not working. Read this article by Usman on AddictiveTips  and learn how to test your Intel CPU.

Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool Verifies Your Processor Functions And Performs Stress Test

Are you one of those people who aren’t productive because you spend a lot of time browsing the internet? Check this article by Amit on Digital Inspiration Technology Blog.

Temporarily Block Time-Wasting Websites to Improve your Productivity

I hope you never have to need this article but I think is worth knowing. Read this article by Shabnam Sultan on Tech-Tips-Geek.

What Happens To Email And Social Networking Accounts After We Die?

Do you like Kinect? Do you know that are people working on using it in Windows 7? Check this article by Robert Boland on Windows 7 News.

Kinect Controlling Windows 7

This is a simple guide that will show you how to create that awesome looking Windows Aero effect in Photoshop. If you are using another image editing program, then you may need to change some steps, but it is possible to create the following in most modern programs.

If you want to skip the tutorial and download the file for yourself, get it here:

Download Photoshop Aero Effect PSD

Otherwise, improve your Photoshop skills by following this tutorial:

Step 1

Start by creating a new document. Match the settings of your window to that of the screenshot.

Step 2

Choose the paint bucket tool and full the background layer with any color or gradient you like. I added a sort of reflection to the top to make it look nicer.

Step 3

Use the rounded rectangle tool with a radius of 10px to create a rectangle the size of the area you want to have the “Aero Effect”.

Step 4

Ctrl+Right Click the vector mask of the shape so you end up with a selection in the shape of the rounded rectangle.

Step 5

With the rectangle still selected left click on the background layer and press Ctrl + C to copy the contents.

Press Ctrl+V to paste the selection on a new layer.

Delete the layer with the rounded rectangle on it. Label Layer 1 Copied Selection.

Step 6

You may notice that nothing looks any different than what we started with, but by the end of this step you will end up with something resembling a Windows Aero Effect.

Double click on Copied Selection.

Change the Layer Style to be the same as the screenshots below:

Step 7

Now we are going to create those very light diagonal lines that you can see on Windows.

Create a new layer and label it Lines.

Get the gradient tool and set it to Foreground to Transparent.

Change the Foreground color to a dark grey ( I used #a3a3a3.)

Create a gradient that takes up around 1/8 of the screen.

You should end up with a line like in the image below.

Step 8

Get the eraser tool to following settings:

Hold the Shift key down to erase a vertical line.

Copy the line to a new layer.

Move the copied line beside the original line and resize it so it is smaller than the original using the transform tool.

Repeat until you have a number of lines of different sizes.

Merge all the layers with stripes on them.

You should end up with something like this:

Step 9

Using the Transform tool, rotate the stripes 45 degrees.

Make sure that the stripes end outside your “Aero Effect Area” like so:

Ctrl+Left Click on the layer Copied Selection.

Left click on the layer with the stripes on it.

Click on the layer mask button.

Change the stripes layer’s opacity to 10%.

You’re done!

Download Photoshop Aero Effect PSD

Download Photoshop Aero Effect PSD

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