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In this guide, you will learn what the Windows Registry is, how to access and configure it, and how to backup and restore it.
There are a number of ways to capture screenshots without any additional software in Windows. You can:
- Capture the whole screen (and automatically save it if you have Windows 8)
- Capture a part of the screen or a window
- Capture a series of screenshots in a document
This guide covers the tools built in to Windows and how to use them.
While cleaning up old posts, I found this one, written by Stu some time ago. I’ve updated all the download links, added a few links to related articles, and thought I’d share his list with you. Rich.
When I recently posted an article which shows how to Install Windows 7 without bootable media, I obviously went through the Windows 7 installation process several times. In then end, when everything went correctly, I had 2 brand-new Windows 7 operating systems to work with. After installing updates, what else do you do? Install some cool freeware!
Here’s a list of my favourite 25 freeware applications. There are paid-for alternatives of some of my favourites but the free versions do a sterling job. So in no particular order:
If you store photos on your home PC and don’t back them up, I really recommend you do. Hard drives fail all the time yet I still get many emails and PMs asking for help with data recovery. Even if you use an online backup solution, I still recommend taking an inexpensive local backup on optical media periodically.
I have my photos synced on two hard drives at home, on a remote server (RAID 10), and with a third-party storage provider. I’m still paranoid about losing my life’s memories in photos so I like to take a snapshot of my photo data every two years. By making a biannual backup, you’ll always have 3-5 viable sets of discs (they don’t last forever) with your important files—should you ever lose or overwrite them. Hopefully this guide is helpful and gives you something to do with the remaining 88 of the 100 DVDs you purchased on sale three years ago…
The other day I got a call from a user who had somehow managed to make all his desktop shortcuts open in Word. I suspected he had used the “open With” option in the context menu; thus, telling Windows to “Always use this program to open these files”. The problem was clear. Even though each shortcut had the correct settings, Windows would still open them in Word. The problem is, you can’t just tell Windows to open the shortcut files in an other program than Word. You have to somehow Reset the shortcut behavior to factory settings.
So how did we fix it ?
| Windows Guides’ Rating | Compatible with | System |
  4.5 out of 5 |
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PROS: Lightweight and simple. Performs its main task—reporting file-by-file disk usage—in an intuitive manner and provides the ability to visually drill down to the largest files and directories on your hard drive. Essential for SSD users running out of space! CONS: The only “con” is WinDirStat has pretty much looked the same since its release in 2003. The treemap view is great but it’s a little bit of an eye sore by today’s standards. Still, the software is bug free and provides data quickly and efficiently. VERDICT: If you want to save disk space, this utility is essential. PRICE: Free VERSION REVIEWED: 1.1.2.80 DOWNLOAD: WinDirStat |