Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Doing a quick search on our site reveals several articles and forum posts regarding the new PowerShell functionality that comes shipped with Windows 7. Windows PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language designed for system administration and automation. Built on the .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell enables IT professionals and developers to control and automate the administration of Windows and applications.

If you have begun using PowerShell and become so attached to it that you cannot imagine life without – working on a computer (such as Windows XP) that does not have PowerShell seems not worth it. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just install PowerShell on your Windows XP computer ??

The good news is – You can!

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WMC TV for your PC

Back in a previous post (add a tuner) we talked about the features available in the TV section of Windows Media Center made possible by the installation of a TV tuner card.

In this article we’ll take you through the whole process, step by step, with plenty of screen shots. The tuner for this report is the WinTV-HVR-NovaT very similar to the model shown below.

The System Health Report is a great feature of Windows 7 that will help you find potential problems with your PC and point you in the right direction to a resolution. This report records details about your computer’s performance, resource usage, and more and includes diagnostic information about things that aren’t working with resolution suggestions.

Specifically, the report includes:

• Diagnostic Results (Warnings, Performance)
• Software Configuration (OS Checks, Security Center Information, System Services, Startup Programs)
• Hardware Configuration (Disk Checks, Systems, Desktop Rating, BIOS, Devices)
• CPU (Process, Service, Services, System)
• Network (TCP, Interface, IP, UDP)
• Disk (Hot files, Disk breakdown, Physical disk, NTFS Performance)
• Memory (Processes, Counters)

In this guide, we’ll cover the following:

1. How to run a system health check.
2. View the output of a system health check.
3. Research Issues.
4. Fix Issues.
5. Get help with reported issues.

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Thinking about upgrading to Microsoft Office 2010?

Each upgrade brings exciting new features, but new versions of your favourite programs can take some getting used to. It’s no different for those of us here at Microsoft who create the Office programs than it is for our customers.

To ease the transition, we’ve put together six handy Office 2010 migration guides to help you step up to the newest versions of Microsoft Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word.

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In this guide, we show you a bunch of tips and tricks for Sticky Notes, which has received an update for Windows 7. Specifically, we’ll What versions?cover the following:

• What versions of Windows 7 have Sticky Notes?
• How do I open Sticky Notes?
• How do I create a new note?
• How do I change the color of notes?
• How do I resize notes?
• How do I delete a note?
• How do I change the fonts of a note?
• How can I backup my notes?
• How do I format text within my notes?
• How do I save my notes for later?

If you know of a trick that we missed, please let us know in the comments.

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[DEPRECATED]

We’ve had a look at IE8 and its ability to block ads without add-ons using InPrivate Filtering before.  What’s new i hear you cry.  Well, I’ll let you see for yourself.

Todays Quick Tip shows how to start IE9 in InPrivate Filtering mode every time you start the browser, as opposed to turning it on manually.  Something I think Microsoft should definitely implement.  (Alt+X > K)?

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