On my Windows Vista computer I have various video (AVI) files sorted into folders. When I look in one of these folders the icon for each of the AVI files shows a still frame from that video. This makes it much easier to determine the content of each of those AVI files without having to open the files in Windows Media Player. However, this does not happen in any other folders – instead, the file icons are just the standard Windows Media Player icon. Can you help? (more…)

There are some very handy shortcuts in Word 2007 which can make editing documents much quicker and easier. Three of my favourite (and useful) tips relate to selecting text within a document. To select a particular word within a document, simply double-click on that word. To select a sentence, hold the CTRL key and click within the sentence. Finally, to select a paragraph, simply triple-click within the paragraph.

Whenever I turn on my relatively new Windows Vista Ultimate Edition computer a DOS looking screen appears before the Windows splash screen asking which operating system I would like to start. This is much like a dual-boot computer with multiple operating systems installed. However, the only operating system installed on the computer is Windows Vista. When I select the Windows Vista option in the boot menu another menu appears giving me the option to boot the computer into Safe Mode, Normal Mode, or Step-by-Step Confirmation. I always select Normal mode but I still cannot boot into Windows, as most of the time the monitor indicator light changes from active to inactive and the screen displays “No Signal”. I have detached the monitor cables from the computer to blow away any dust but that has not helped fix the problem. Can you help? (more…)

The Windows Vista Device Manager reports that there are three devices which have a problem (code 31): Microsoft 6to4 Adaptor #2, 6to4 Adaptor #4, and ISATAP Adaptor #4. Device Manager is unable to update the drivers as they are reported to be up-to-date. The computer appears to be running alright with the adaptors disabled. How can I correct the problems with the adaptors? (more…)

By default, the software included in Office 2007 (including Word, Excel and PowerPoint), save new documents to the My Documents folder. However, if you usually save these documents to a different location, then it can become frustrating having to change this default save location every time you save a document. Fortunately, you can save yourself a lot of trouble by permanently changing the default save location. The following procedure will use Word as an example, but the same can be applied to the other Office applications. Go to the Office menu (top right-hand corner of the Word window) and then click “Word Options” located at the bottom of the menu. In the Word Options window that appears, click the “Save” option and you will be presented with a new screen allowing you to change the “Default file location”.