Well, well, well... I think there are a couple people out there that know me that were wondering when I was going to start sprinkling in a couple things like this here and there. Some of you (and you know who you are) who go back to the good old Commodore 64 days with me have even emailed and contributed a couple of these so-called "Tips and Tricks" of their own. So I thought it only fair to start an on-going series of posts highlighting some of the more useful ones. So there you have it, going forward we will call it, Windows Tips, Tricks (with the occasional Hack). Keep in mind however, that we will be focusing on the Windows 7 variety, at least at first. Windows 7 is probably one of the more user capable versions of Windows that Microsoft has developed in many years, maybe in forever. I say use capable because there are a ton of "power user" functions built in to simple commands and mouse clicks. Making even the novice very capable if given the right information. O0000hh.. scary. And off we go.
Trick #1: Windows 7 now makes having your computer geek buddy or family member helping you with a problem your having much easier on the geek. In the past, you would have to sit on the phone and try to explain how something with your computer is just not working right, or why something your doing is not producing the desired effect or results. Now with Windows 7 there is help! All you have to do is go into the command box (its the little text entry box located at the very bottom of your start menu that pops up when you click on the Windows Orb at the bottom left corner of your screen) and type in PSR. A box will pop up and when it does click "Record". Windows will the record every keystroke and action you perform. It will even take screen shots along the way. This will create a complete record of everything you do on your computer as you attempt to recreate the error you are having. It will save the information in a file that whoever is helping you fix your computer can run. When they do, it will show them every single little thing that you did to cause the problem your experiencing on your system. Then they will know exactly what they need to do to either fix it or tell you how NOT to break stuff anymore!
TIP #1: The Windows 7 calculator. Sure. You are probably thinking, "the calculator? WTH do you call that a tip for!?!?" Well my friend, when was the last time you checked what the calculator in Windows 7 can actually do? Sure, I don't blame you for not thinking it can do much. Especially after getting used to the previous Windows versions offering. But you really should click "View" in the calculator menu bar and check out the various different modes that are offered in the Windows 7 version. In addition to having the ability to turn it into a robust scientific calculator, you also have the ability to turn it into a statistical monster. You can make it give you a whole bunch of unit conversions as well. When was the last time you needed to convert Celsius into Fahrenheit? Or liters into gallons. That and much more is available. You can try out date calculations to see how many days are between a couple dates as well as a whole slew of data calculations that are used in various spreadsheets. Check out all the various modes, I'm sure you will be surprised.
That's it for now. But check back often. I have a bunch of these at the moment, and more are coming in all the time. I will be numbering them as either a Tip, Trick or a Hack starting from 1 and going forward. I will try to include one of each category (at least) for each post. But of course this all depends on available time and other factors. So check back occasionally for this and other posts. Enjoy!
