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Master The Taskbar And Start Menu

Windows Tips And Tricks

In Windows 7, the Start menu and the taskbar have become both easier to use and more sophisticated. However, they also offer a slew of additional capabilities and customization options that aren’t obvious when you first look at them. I’ll first walk through the plethora of options for each, and then dive into how to use them more effectively.

The Start Menu
The Start menu is so named because that’s where you go to start applications, restart or shut down Windows, and perform other basic application management chores. When you start up a new system, or perform a clean install of Windows, this is the Start menu you see.

Lots of people happily use the Start menu in this state, which is very XP-like. Unlike XP, though, the applications are sorted alphabetically. This tends to give recent XP converts heartburn, but you can change this behavior when you customize the Start menu. My personal preference is alphabetical sort, which you could do in XP by context clicking on the All Programs section and sorting.

The picture above is my Start menu, as I use it.

The first thing you’ll notice is the size--more programs are visible on the basic Start menu, without having to go to the dreaded "All Programs" section. Also notice that Downloads, Games, and Computer are pop-out menus. I use those particular folders frequently, so I find that using them as pop-outs on the Start menu is preferable to launching the actual Window, then clicking something else.

Now let's customize the Start menu. If you context-click (right-click) on the Start menu button, one of the two options is Properties. Click on that option, and the following window appears. (The other option merely opens Windows Explorer.)

You'll see a pair of settings here that you should enable: (1) Store and display recently opened programs in the Start menu, and (2) Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and taskbar. These are put under "Privacy" because you may not want them enabled for a shared system, but for most users, turning these options on (if they're not already on by default) is a no-brainer.

Now click the Customize button.

You’ll see a fixed-size window (you can’t make it bigger), with a lot of different options. Here’s a summary of the changes I made to my own Start menu. I’m only going to list those changes, not what I kept at default settings.

- Number of recent programs / recent items to display (under "Start menu size"). The default is 10; I set it to 20, since I have a large display. If you’re running on a relatively low-resolution monitor (like a laptop), you may want to keep the number at 10.

- Computer. I enabled "Display as a menu." The various drives and top folders appear on a fly-out menu. Saves a click.

- Downloads. The default is "Don’t display," but I like it as a link, which lets me get to the Downloads folder with one click.

- Games. I display this in the Start menu as a fly-out menu. That’s a much quicker way to launch games that are in the Windows games folder.

- Network. I don’t often access this folder, but when I do, I want to get to it quickly, so enabling it as a link is fine.

- Recent Items. I turned this on, but it's one of those items you may want leave disabled on a shared system. On the other hand, it’s very handy to have quick access to recent files, without needing to find the Jump List for the individual application that may be associated with the files.

- Run command. This avoids having to type "Run" in the search box.

- System administrative tools. By default, this display option is turned off. I like having access to system management tools. It has some useful stuff that’s hard to find, so enabling this tools display is often helpful when you need to troubleshoot a problem.

Note that I leave "Sort All Programs menu by name" enabled (that’s the default.) If you uncheck it, the Start menu will sort programs by most recently installed. (If you change it after you’ve installed a bunch of apps, it will remain sorted alphabetically for a time, until you install more apps.) What you won’t get is the old Windows XP behavior, where you could manually reorder the icons in the Start menu. Some users may not like this.

If you’re so inclined, you can change many more settings by running the Windows 7 Group Policy Editor, but be cautious when using the policy editor.

Start Menu Shortcuts and Tips
Now that you’ve customized the Start menu to your preferences, it’s time to look at some additional shortcuts and tips on using the Start menu.

If you have a lot of programs installed, consider using the keyboard instead of hunting for them in the All Programs window. All you have to do is hold down the Windows logo key and the R key at the same time. This brings up the run box. If you type the name of the program, it will run. However, this assumes you know the exact name of the application. For example, if you want to run Word, you have to type "winword.exe". What, you didn’t know the actual Word program name is winword.exe?

If you know part of the name, but not the whole name, use the Start menu search function. Press the Windows logo key and just start typing "wor". If you wait just a moment for the search function to do its job, you’ll see quite a list.

Here, your version of Word appears as the top choice. But a variety of other apps, shortcuts, and document names have popped up as well, so you can click on whichever of those you want. On the other hand, when I hit the Enter key after typing "wor" (minus the quote marks, of course), then the top item in the list is opened--in this case, Microsoft Word. Simple and efficient.

Note that you will have to type more characters than you think you need on occasion. If you type "ex," then hit enter you’ll likely run Internet Explorer. If your intent was to run Excel, you’ll need to type "exc" at a minimum.

Now it’s time to move on to the Windows taskbar.

Customizing the Windows Taskbar
The Windows Taskbar has evolved from being a simple indicator of open applications to a much more active user interface entity in its own right. The key features of the taskbar, as you probably have discovered, are Jump Lists and Aero Peek. However, before examining taskbar features, it’s worth spending some time customizing the taskbar. Like the Start menu, the taskbar can be configured to behave more to your liking.

First, let’s take a look at my taskbar. This is actually relatively uncluttered for me--I often have many more windows and apps open.

Right-click on any empty space in the taskbar and click Properties. The taskbar and Start menu properties sheet will pop up, with the taskbar tab active.

This is the default setting--taskbar locked, at the bottom of the window and Aero Peek enabled. I strongly suggest you leave Aero Peek turned on--it’s one of the most useful features of the Windows 7 taskbar. When it comes to the way you view icons, applications and files in the taskbar, though, it's mostly up to your personal preference.

The default is to have just unlabeled icons. If you run more than one instance, or have multiple documents open in a particular app, you’ll see a layered icon. You will never see more than three layers, though. So you won’t know if you’ve got more than three docs open or three instances of a particular app running. You also won’t know the names of the documents without hovering over the icons.

If this bugs you, you can change the taskbar buttons to Combine when taskbar is full in the Taskbar button pulldown. Windows will combine certain sets of objects when the taskbar fills up. Note that what's visible in the taskbar may vary, depending on what types of documents or folders you open, and the number of each type.

If you choose never combine, what’s visible in the taskbar becomes smaller and smaller, until they’re very small icons.

Other options on the primary properties page include "Lock the taskbar" (default is the bottom of the screen), "Auto-hide the taskbar" (useful on laptops or other screens relatively light on pixel real estate) and "Use small icons" (also useful on smaller screens.)

If you click on Customize, you’ll get a screen that allows you to alter the behavior of taskbar and notification icons. The notification area (the tiny up arrow on the right side of the taskbar) is where all the old tray apps that load on startup live now. You can, if you want, enable them all to be visible in the tray, so you can have that really cluttered, Windows XP look. I tend to have most of them set to notification only.

Taskbar tips and tricks
Pinning: Pinning a program to the taskbar is easy--just drag the icon to the taskbar. Note that you can’t pin a folder to the taskbar--but then, you never could. In the olden days, you could pin a folder to the Quick Launch bar, which wasn’t the same thing as the taskbar. If you really, really want to pin folders to the taskbar, you can find hacks out in the wild. One way is documented on Sevenforums. But I’ve found Jump Lists to be much more useful.

The magic of middle-click: The middle button on your mouse has two key functions when using the taskbar. Middle-clicking on a taskbar icon will launch a new instance of an application. This is very handy in apps like Excel, which will default to one instance with multiple pages when you open a second or subsequent Excel document. Of course, some apps, like Skype, won’t let you open a second instance, but I often use this for Excel, or to simply open a new instance of another app.

Middle-clicking has another function, too. If you hover over an icon, and multiple document pages are shown, middle-clicking on one of them will close that document. I often use this to close excess open file folders.

Keyboard magic: Keyboard shortcuts are a big productivity booster for some users. While I find myself not using them much these days, other people love them. Paul Thurrott’s Windows site has a comprehensive list of taskbar keyboard shortcuts.

Context-clicking magic: Remember the right mouse button! Right-clicking on the taskbar opens up a host of interesting options. You can activate a number of different toolbars, including some that are added by applications. The Zune toolbar, for example, puts a miniature control app on the taskbar when you’re running the Zune app. You can also start the Task Manager, making it easier to access than the old control-alt-delete three-fingered salute. You can close all the windows, which is the same as clicking the tiny box at the extreme right of the taskbar, but slightly easier for me to access. And you can alter window behavior (cascading, side-by-side, and so on). Finally, you can unlock the taskbar, which allows you to make it bigger, or move it somewhere else, if you prefer.

The Windows 7 Start menu and taskbar are powerful user interface tools that allow you to efficiently access applications and offer a host of nifty features and shortcuts. Spend a little time customizing and learning the ins and outs of both, and you'll become a more efficient and productive Windows user.

Nokia 700, 701 Shipping to India Soon

After taking a look at the Symbian Belle operating system last week we were pleasantly pleased to hear that Nokia’s two mainstream Symbian Belle touchscreen devices 700 and 701 will be retailing sooner in India. A Nokia India public relations official stated that both the devices might release tentatively by the end of September, which is earlier than the October release.

Both these devices run Symbian’s latest operating system ‘Belle’. The 700 features a 1 GHz processor and the body is entirely made of recycled plastic. It also has a 3.2 inch ClearBack Amoled display with Gorilla Glass.

The 701 has a bigger 3.5 inch In Plane Switching (IPS) LCD display with ClearBack technology and Gorilla glass. The 701’s new graphics processor supposedly has four times the graphics memory in comparison to older Symbian handsets.

The final release dates and prices are yet to be announced but we expect the Nokia 700 to be priced around Rs 17,000 and the 701 around Rs 19,000.

First Look at Symbian Belle

Symbian Belle hands-on

It is easy to write off Symbian when you look at videos of N9 running Meego or even the WP7 based Nokia phones which are expected to ship next year. Little did I know Symbian had something big in the works in the form of 'Belle'? The moment we realised the Symbian Belle leaked software for Nokia N8 was doing the rounds of various forums on the internet we had to try it.
So here is the first look of the improved User Interface (UI) of Symbian Belle on PCWorld India. Please note that Near Field Communications (NFC) is not available in India and as a result I could not test it.
Pull-down Notifications Tab

The first thing that struck me was the slick pull-down notification tab similar to Google’s Android. I guess if Apple’s iOS can ape Android, Symbian can too. But frankly I quite like the design of the Nokia one. It is indeed classy.
Six Homescreens


I’m not a fan of too many homescreens. But for those who can't stop arranging everything on your phone in homescreens they might appreciate the six that Symbian Belle provides. You have more real estate now for all your icons. I wonder if you'd ever need the menu button again. Oh I almost forgot to mention, there is a dim background in the menu screen as well.
Better Customization Options

I know you have been craving for this feature in Symbian^3 and Symbian Anna. Now you can move around your icons similar to the wobbly icons on iOS. Though it is very handy to move your icons around you cannot drag icons into folders directly which is a letdown.
Improved Search Integration


It is like that famous jingle that goes "wherever you go our network follows" the search button in Nokia follows you wherever you navigate on the phone. I totally approve this considering the fact that I have a lot of apps that I use and it is difficult finding a single app in the heap.
Widgets

Loads of widgets are now available at your disposal. The one that caught my attention, however, was the new music player widget.
Conclusion
It is too soon to say how Symbian Belle's final build will function on the soon to be released Nokia 700 and Nokia 701. On the N8, I can say it looks good despite the fact that it borrows a lot of design cues from the other mobile operating systems.

Microsoft Outlook 2007: 10 Top Tips

10 Tips for Outlook 2007

Hate it or love it, there's a good chance that you use Microsoft Outlook, still the most popular e-mail client on the planet. Outlook 2010 for Windows was just released, but only to businesses, who may take a while to switch to the new version. Office 2010 won't be available to individual users until later this spring. So we thought this was a good time to help you with the Outlook you're most likely using (and still getting used to) now -- Outlook 2007.

Outlook 2007 does a lot of things that previous versions can't do, such as previewing attachments, handling RSS feeds and more. There are potential challenges to Outlook 2007 as well, such as its ability to handle .pst files from earlier Outlook versions. In this story, we'll give tips on how to get the most out of Outlook 2007. We've also got dozens of keyboard shortcuts and a listing of where Outlook 2007 stores its most important data and customization files. These tips are written for Outlook using POP3 mail, not for Outlook in an MS Exchange Server environment. However, you may find that some of the tips work in Exchange environments as well.

Note: This article assumes that you know the basics of Outlook navigation. Just as a reminder, Outlook has multiple panes, notably the Navigation pane for getting to the main parts of Outlook such as e-mail, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks. Outlook 2007 also includes parts of the new Ribbon interface found in other Microsoft Office 2007 applications. For some reason, the Ribbon wasn't introduced across the board in Outlook 2007 in the way it was with those other apps. So for example, on the main Outlook screen there's no Ribbon, but when you open or compose an e-mail, the Ribbon appears. (The good news is that the Ribbon appears more consistently in Office 2010 -- not that that helps Office 2007 users much though.) Now, on to the tips!

1. Teach Outlook 2007 to Play Nice with Social Networking Sites

E-mail has been slowly losing its primacy as the way that people communicate electronically, as social networking sites and services such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn proliferate. But you can get the best of both worlds right within Outlook 2007 by integrating Outlook with some features of social networking sites. Microsoft's Outlook Social Connector and the third-party Xobni are both free, and both work from right inside Outlook to do the integration. Xobni is the more comprehensive of the two. It grabs information about your contacts directly from Facebook, LinkedIn, and to a lesser extent Twitter, and displays them right within Outlook. So, for example, you can follow a person's tweets as well as her Facebook and LinkedIn updates. It also allows two-way communication, so you can post a Twitter update from within Outlook. It does plenty more as well, such as grabbing information about a contact's employer from Hoovers, displaying threaded conversations with contacts, and more. Since it's free, if you use a social networking site but still communicate primarily via e-mail, you'll want to get it.


Microsoft's Outlook Social Connector works similarly, although it's not as comprehensive as Xobni. At this point it works only with LinkedIn and MySpace, although Microsoft says that in the future it will work with Facebook and most likely Twitter as well. It's still in beta, but it's stable enough to download and use. The Outlook Social Connector doesn't grab as much information from social networking sites as Xobni does, and it doesn't allow two-way communication, at least at this point. It's a little better integrated to Outlook, however, so it's good for basics such as seeing someone's most recent activity on LinkedIn. I use it in addition to Xobni. If you're looking to use Twitter from within Outlook, try the free TwInBox plug-in. Like Xobni, it lets you send tweets and follow others' tweets from within Outlook, but it offers additional features such as archiving, grouping and managing tweets, and shortening URLs with bit.ly.

2. Use Sports Teams' and TV Shows' Calendars inside Outlook

Would you like to follow the calendar of a favourite sports team, TV show, or other type of calendar inside Outlook? It's easy to do, because Outlook supports the iCal calendar format in the form of an .ics file, which allows for calendar sharing.
First, find the .ics file for the calendar you want to view inside Outlook. Your best bet is to do a Web search for a page that will tell you where to get the .ics calendar -- for example, using the search terms "Red Sox ical." The result you want will say "downloadable schedule" or something similar. In the case of the Boston Red Sox, a Google search turns up the 2010 Downloadable Schedule page.
On the page, look for a link to the iCal URL that contains the calendar. In our example, it is http://mlb.mlb.com/soa/ical/schedule.ics?team_id=111&season=2010

After you've got the iCal URL, follow these steps:
1. In Outlook 2007 select Tools --> Account Settings.
2. Click the Internet Calendars tab and click New.
3. On the screen that appears, paste in the Red Sox iCal URL, then click Add.
4. In the Folder Name box on the screen that appears, type in the name of the calendar -- in our instance, Boston Red Sox. You can also type a description into the Description box.


5. Click OK, then click Close.
You'll now see the new calendar listed in the Calendar's Navigation Pane. It will remain separate from your own personal calendar, and from any other calendars you might want to add. You can include multiple calendars this way.

3. Create Boilerplate Text to Insert into E-mail Messages

Do you have boilerplate text -- such as a description of your business or background -- that you insert often into e-mail messages, but not every time like a signature? If so, you'll welcome one of Outlook 2007's lesser-known features -- Quick Parts, which is also included in Word 2007. You can use Quick Parts to insert images, text or a combination of the two. To use it, do the following:
1. Create a new e-mail message.
2. Write the boilerplate text you want to reuse or insert the boilerplate graphic you want to reuse (or both).


3. Select the text and/or graphic, click the Insert tab on the Ribbon, and select Quick Parts --> Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery.
4. In the screen that appears, type in a descriptive name for the text or graphic in the Name field. Type in a description of the Quick Part in the Description field. Don't change any other fields. Click OK.


5. When you want to insert the Quick Part into an e-mail message, click Insert from the Ribbon, click Quick Parts, scroll to the Quick Part you want to insert, and click it.
Note that Quick Parts are not shared between Word and Outlook, so you have to create separate ones for each application. (Outlook Quick Parts are stored in NormalE-mail.dotm, while those for Word are stored in Normal.dotm.)

4. Speed up Attachment Previews

One of Outlook 2007's niftier new features is its ability to let you preview Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and other files when you're reading mail without having to open the attachment itself. To do that, you highlight the file, and then click the "Preview file" button. You can make files from specific senders preview automatically without going through those steps. For each person whose attachments you want to preview this way, right-click on an e-mail from the person, select Junk E-Mail from the menu that appears, and choose Add Sender to Safe Senders List. The next time the person sends you a file you want to preview, highlight it and uncheck the box next to "Always warn before previewing this type of file." From now on, you'll preview this type of attachment from this sender as soon as you highlight it.

5. Give Your Older .pst File A New Life in Outlook 2007

Outlook 2007, like earlier versions of Outlook, stores all of your e-mail as well as other important information in a .pst file named Outlook.pst. Normally the file is found in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook. Back when Outlook 2003 was released, Microsoft changed the .pst file format, with one important benefit -- .pst files would no longer be subject to a limit of 2GB. In Outlook 2003 and 2007, the limit is now 20GB.

Pre-2003 versions of Outlook cannot open files in the new .pst format, but Outlook 2003 and 2007 can open the older .pst file format. So even if you have Outlook 2007, you may be using an older .pst file if you used a previous version of Outlook. There is one serious drawback to using an older .pst file with Outlook 2007 -- it is subject to the same maximum file size of 2GB. There's no direct way to automatically convert an older .pst file to the new Outlook .pst format. Still, with a little bit of fiddling, it can be done.

First, determine whether the .pst file is in the older or newer format. To do that, follow these steps:
1. In Outlook, select File --> Data File Management.
2. Click the Data Files tab and select the .pst file you're interested in.
3. Click Settings to open the Personal Folders dialog box.

4. Look in the Format field. If it reads "Personal Folders File (97-2002)," it means you have a .pst file in the older format. If it reads "Personal Folders File," you have a newer .pst file.
If in doing this you see you are using an older .pst file, you can use a work-around to convert it to the newer format. (You can close the Personal Folders box; we're done with it now.)

You'll first create a blank .pst file in the new format, then import the information from the old file into the new one:
1. In Outlook's main menu, select File --> New --> Outlook Data File.
2. On the screen that appears, select Office Outlook Personal File Folder (.pst) and click OK.
3. From the screen that appears, give the new file a file name and choose the location where you want it stored. By default, Outlook will choose where your other .pst files are stored, which by default in Windows 7 or Vista is C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook and in Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 is \Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
4. From the screen that appears, type a name into the Name box -- this is the name for the file that Outlook will display. Click OK. You've just created the new file in the .pst format. Now you're going to import the data from the old .pst file.
5. Select File --> Import and Export.
6. Select "Import from another program or file," then click Next.
7. From the screen that appears, select Personal Folder File (.pst).
8. A screen will appear asking for the location and name of the file you want to import. Browse to the location of the old .pst file and click Open.
9. You'll be back on the screen asking for the location and name of the file you want to import. Choose "Replace duplicates with items imported" and click Next.
10. From the screen that appears, click on the display name of the file you want to import and click Finish. Outlook will now import all of the data from the old .pst file to the new one, which has a 20GB size limit.

6. Manage RSS Feeds inside Outlook 2007

Those who follow blogs and other RSS feeds should make use of one of Outlook 2007's best features, its built-in RSS reader. When you use the reader, each feed has its own separate folder. Outlook automatically polls each feed and posts updates to the appropriate folder. You can then browse through the folders, the same way you browse through mail. All RSS feeds will be under the RSS Feeds folder.


If you want to use Outlook 2007 for reading blogs, it's best if you configure it to be your default RSS reader. To do that in Windows 7 or Vista, from Outlook 2007's main menu, select Tools --> Options, click the Other tab, and then click the Default programs button. From the screen that appears, check the boxes next to the “Outlook Feeds” items (there may be more than one), click Save, and then click OK. If you're using Windows XP, you'll have to set the default another way (which also works with Windows 7 and Vista): In your Web browser, go to the blog that you want to subscribe to and click the RSS icon. You'll be asked whether to use Outlook to subscribe to the feed. Check the box next to "Always use Microsoft Office Outlook to subscribe to feeds."

From now on, when you click the icon for an RSS feed on the Web, you'll see an Outlook message asking if you want to subscribe to the feed. Click Yes to subscribe or No to not subscribe, or you can customize aspects of how you read each feed by clicking the Advanced button. On the screen that appears, you can change the display name of the feed or change the .pst file to which the feed will be delivered. You can also determine whether the feed should automatically download enclosures (multimedia content, such as for podcasts) and whether to download the entire post as an HTML file.


You can also subscribe to an RSS feed from straight within Outlook 2007 as long as you know the URL of the feed. To do it, select Tools --> Account Settings, then click the RSS Feeds tab. Click New, and type or paste the URL of the feed into the New RSS Feed dialog box that appears. Then click Add, and click OK.

7. Integrate Google Reader Feeds into Outlook

Google Reader is an excellent Web-based RSS reader, and if you already use it, you may have quite a few RSS subscriptions there. What if you'd also like to get access to those RSS feeds -- and other Google Reader features -- from within Outlook? Here's how to do it:
1. Right-click the RSS feeds folder in Outlook and select Properties.
2. Click the Home Page tab.
3. In the Address box, type: http://google.com/reader
Check the box next to "Show home page by default for this folder." Then click OK.

From now on, when you click the RSS Feeds folder within Outlook, Google Reader appears in your Reading Pane and you can use it there in the same way as if you were using it on the Web. You will most likely have to log into Google Reader the first time you use it within Outlook. Your existing RSS feeds within Outlook won't vanish -- they'll be in their folders underneath the RSS Feed folder, just like before.

8. Sync Outlook's Calendar with Google Calendar

Do you use the Outlook calendar at work, but also keep you own personal Google Calendar? Checking two calendars throughout the day and manually keeping them in sync can sometimes feel like a full-time chore. However, free software from Google can automatically keep them in sync.


Downloading, installing and setting up Google Calendar Sync is straightforward. The only real decision you'll face is what kind of sync to perform. You can perform a two-way sync, in which all events in both calendars are synced with each other, a one-way sync from Outlook to Google, or a one-way sync from Google to Outlook.
If you want to change the type of sync the program performs at any point, right-click the Google Calendar Sync icon in the System Tray, select Options, and make the change from the screen that appears.

9. Find Where Outlook 2007 Stores Data

Outlook stores its data in many different locations, not all of them logical. Making things even more confusing is that some of the locations are different than they were in previous versions of Outlook. The locations may also vary depending on the version of Windows you use. There are times when you'll want to know where the files are stored, for example if you want to back them up. To help you out, following is a list of the default files, extensions and their locations, and what they do. Note that this is for setups where Outlook is not being used in concert with Exchange Server.

Keep in mind that many of these folders are hidden by default. If yours are hidden, you can tell Windows to display them. How you do that depends on your operating system. In Windows Vista click the Start button and select Control Panel --> Appearance and Personalization --> Folder Options. Then on the View Tab, under Advanced Settings, select "Show Hidden Files and Folders" under the Hidden Files and Folders entry. Click OK.


In Windows XP, click the Start button, then click Control Panel. Click Folder Options, and in the View tab, select "Show hidden files and folders" under the "Hidden files and folders" entry. Then click OK.

10. Take Advantage of Outlook's Keyboard Shortcuts

Mousing around Outlook takes far too much time. Using the keyboard for common tasks is your quickest way to productivity. The following shortcuts will help you with just about anything you do in Outlook.

Unlock Windows Vista Hidden Features

Get More Out of Vista

We’ve done our fair share of Vista-bashing over the years, but the reality is that Windows Vista has a lot of hidden talents that go unheralded. We tell you how to unlock and make use of six features in Windows Vista you might not be aware of and working with Vista a much more pleasant experience.

Use Stacking to Organize Files

Stacking is a handy way to organize the files contained in any given folder. Stacks are really just virtual folders, and they're temporary.

1. Open a folder containing some documents, photos, MP3s, or whatever.
2. Right-click any open area within that folder and mouse over Stack By.
3. Choose the kind of stack you want: Name, date modified, file type, size, etc. Note that the available options will differ depending on the kinds of files in the folder.

Presto: Vista creates your stacks, which appear under the banner of "search results." That's what we mean when we say they're temporary: Stacks are really just a filtered, folder-specific form of searching. If you want to save a stack for future use, click the Save Search button up on the toolbar.

Turn on 'Checkboxes' Feature

Holding down the Ctrl key is the normal way of selecting multiple files but It's easy to mis-click and "lose" all your selections. Checkboxes can ease lots of trouble. Instead of holding down the Ctrl key, you simply click a checkbox next to each file you want to select. To enable it, open any system window, click the Organize menu, and then choose Folder and Search Options. Next, click the View tab, and then scroll down until you see Use check boxes to select items. Enable it, then click OK.

Fast-Access Folders

It's not uncommon for those frequently used folders to be scattered across your hard drive, which makes finding them a slow and inconvenient process. Enter "favorites," Vista's way of putting designated folders at your fingertips. Here's how to create one:

1. Open Windows Explorer. (My favorite method: Tap Windows-E on your keyboard.)
2. Navigate to the folder you want to turn into a favorite.
3. Drag the folder to the Favorite Links area in the lefthand pane. (Don't see it? Click Organize, Layout, Navigation Pane to make it visible.)
4. Repeat as desired with other folders.

Now just click any of your folder shortcuts to immediately access the contents therein.

A More Powerful Administrator

Vista’s UAC has come under a lot of flak because of its annoying nature. It springs up even if you are log in as an administrator. Te fact is that Vista has a more powerful administrator account that is hidden. You can activate it and get all the administrative privileges without the irritating Uac popping up every time you run something. You can access this hidden administrator account with. The following steps –

1. Run command Prompt in administrator mode (Right click the command prompt icon at the top of the Start menu and click Run as administrator.
2. type the following command - net user administrator/active:yes.

Now you will see another administrator account created on top of the default administrator account. To disable the administrator account youactivated just type net user administrator/active:no.