Windows Tips

PC problems can be real time sinks. That's why people are willing to pay for programs that them help find, fix, and prevent tech glitches. Smith Micro's $49.99 CheckIt Diagnostics claims to help you prevent hardware failures before they happen. The program's hardware tests put your system components through the wringer, but if it finds a problem, the solutions suggested by the utility can be severe.

For instance, when my 8-month-old laptop failed CheckIt's memory and video tests, the advice the program offered in the first case included reinstalling the CPU. For the second failed … Read more

Do you need Windows 7? If you're happy with your current PC—whether it runs Vista, XP, or some other operating system—probably not. But if you're in the market for a new system, there's a lot to like about Windows 7, particularly in the look-and-feel department.

You can read all about Win7's new features on Microsoft's official Windows 7 site. But some of my favorites are the subtle interface tweaks that can be easy to miss.

Starting with the basics I like to keep the Windows desktop free of icons, so the first change … Read more

Roughly speaking, powering a desktop PC with a 17-inch LCD 8 hours a day, 20 days a month costs about $35 a year. That's according to the energy-use calculator on Michael Bluejay's Saving Electricity site.

The same site indicates that computers and electronics represent less than 10 percent of the average energy bill in the U.S. That's about the same amount we spend to power our refrigerators and a third of what the typical home pays for heating.

But if you're looking to reduce your carbon footprint along with your electric bill, minimizing your computer'… Read more

The consensus of experts is that Windows 7 is the best operating system Microsoft has ever released. I managed to perform a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate on an XP PC with no problems whatsoever, but not all Windows 7 upgrades go so smoothly.

In fact, I was getting ready to install Windows 7 Home Premium on a blank partition of my Sony Vaio laptop so I could dual-boot Vista and Win7 but was scared off by a handful of reports of serious upgrade problems. Call me chicken, but I count on my notebook PC and don't want … Read more

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday, October 9, that the H1N1 virus was widespread in 37 states. Fortunately, vaccines are on their way, and seasonal flu shots are currently available (the map on the Flu.gov site helps you find a vaccination center near you).

The best way to avoid bringing the flu bug home with you from the office is to stay out of the office. If you have the flu, do yourself and your coworkers a favor: stay home and rest! Not sure if you have the flu? Check the CDC site for a list and description of the symptoms of both H1N1 and seasonal flu. You'll also find information on the CDC site for taking care of people with the flu, prevention for people at high risk, and travel updates.

One of the best ways to track the flu's spread is via Google Flu Trends, an interactive map that indicates the frequency of flu-related search terms in various countries.

Additional information on flu trends is available for the U.S. and several other countries. For the U.S., you can compare yearly flu trends and view data for each state.

Link to your office PC for free In many work situations, there's no substitute for being face to face. But every year it gets easier to get your office work done from outside the office. One way to do so is via Windows' Remote Desktop Connection component, which lets you link to a PC that's on an office network, but only if the machine's running XP Professional or Vista/Windows 7 Professional, Business, or Ultimate.

… Read more

It has become conventional wisdom in the PC industry that periodically reinstalling Windows can restore an old PC's youthful vigor. Unfortunately, the process has become a challenge—and a real time-sink, to boot. Better to create a disc image of your hard drive when everything's working well and restore that image when things turn sour.

Recently, my nearly new laptop PC froze in the middle of Windows loading. After a forced shutdown, Vista repaired itself and reverted to a saved restore point. Things were back to normal in no time, but the event reminded me that I hadn'… Read more

CNET has been the premier technology-news site since there have been technology-news sites. It's great to be even a small part of it. But lately I've been spending more and more of my time on one-person tech sites run by people who are among the sharpest on the Web.

The sites themselves couldn't be more different, and one specializes on Windows XP, so it's anything but a "news" site, but each one offers something of value that you won't find anywhere else.

Before I describe these tech sole proprietorships, let me plug two … Read more

My previous post described how to add information to and otherwise customize Windows' Welcome screen. But maybe you just want to get your PC going without having to log into an account. You can bypass Windows' log-on screen by changing settings in the Windows Registry, as described in a tutorial on the Computer Performance site, but I find it much simpler to use a free Windows-tweaking utility to do the same thing.

The program I used to customize the Windows Welcome screen—TweakNow PowerPack 2009—is the same tool I used to disable the log-on screen on my Vista laptop. … Read more

Creating a custom Windows log-on screen has never been faster or simpler. Two free utilities let you do more than replace the boring Windows default start background with a picture of your pet hamsters, though you can do that, too.

Add system info to Windows' start-up sequence In a post earlier this month, I described the beta version of the free TweakNow PowerPack 2009 utility that makes it easy to view system information, maintain Windows, and customize the OS' interface. As that post stated, I encountered a couple of rough edges in the beta version I looked at, but that'… Read more