5 productivity tips for Windows XP

Print from Windows Explorer

If you need to print a document, let’s say a Microsoft Word document, there’s no need to launch Word first. Browse your hard drive for the file that you want to print, right-click its icon, and then click Print. This will automatically send the document to your printer without launching Word.

 

Pin programs to the Start menu

Want to add your favorite programs to the Start menu? From the Start menu, click All Programs. Locate a favorite program, right-click the program’s icon, and then click Pin to Start menu. That’s it.

You can also pin an application by dragging and dropping its icon from All Programs to the Start menu. The program is now “pinned” to your Start menu. To remove it, right-click the program icon on the Start menu and then click Unpin from Start menu.

 

Use small icons on your Start menu

After you install a few dozen applications, your Start menu can become very crowded. One way to reduce the clutter is to use small icons.

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To switch to small icons, right-click the Start menu and click Properties.

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Next, click the Start Menu tab and then click the Customize button.

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Now click the General tab, click Small Icons, and then click OK twice.

 

Search a folder

When I’ve misplaced a file, I almost always know which folder it’s in, but it’s usually lost in a maze of documents or buried in a subfolder. I just can’t remember which subfolder. This is a great way to search a folder quickly.

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Locate the folder where you think the file’s located, right-click the folder, and then click Search. A Search window will open, ready to search for the selected folder and only that folder. This is much quicker than launching Search and navigating your hard drive to the folder.

 

Send an e-mail attachment from anywhere

Here’s a really handy tip.

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Locate a file anywhere on your hard drive that you want to e-mail, right-click the file’s icon, click Send To, and then click Mail Recipient. A new mail message will open with the file attached and ready to send. But what’s really speedy about this tip is that your mail program doesn’t launch. This action creates only a single new mail message.

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Now, to send your attachment, simply type the recipient's e-mail address in the To text field, add any accompanying message, and then click the Send icon. The subject and attachment fields are already set.

These tips are from the book, Windows XP Killer Tips by Kleber Stephenson, ISBN 073571357X. Published here with the permission of Pearson Education, Inc.

ways to use Windows Vista at home

Friendly, useful features make this operating system a must-have for home users

By S. E. Slack, author and technology expert

I've been using Windows Vista for several months now, first testing it and then writing my book, Breakthrough Windows Vista. Now I'm running the final version on my computer. The first thing you'll notice about Windows Vista is the new Aero interface. It's more polished than previous versions of Windows, and it also makes it easier to focus on your work. But aside from the user interface, there are several cool new features that my family and I use regularly. Once more people start using it on a widespread basis, there will be others like me saying, "Wow. An operating system can do this?"

Windows Vista can help you do a lot of things—new tools to help you organize, store, and edit your music and photographs are just two examples of how you can use the new operating system. In this article, though, we'll discuss four ways that my family and I have already started to take advantage of Windows Vista at home.

Stay in touch with Windows Sidebar

If you have ever wished for a place on your desktop to organize and manage all the information you need, your wish has come true. Windows Vista offers the Windows Sidebar, a vertical bar on your desktop that holds information such as weather, news headlines, a calendar, and all sorts of other things that can be added. On my Windows Sidebar, I have a notepad to make notes to myself, a small calendar so I can see the date, local weather so I know whether or not to bring the dog in from the cold, a clock to tell me when it's time to stop working, and a newsfeed so I can stay in the loop with the outside world. Having exactly the information that I want and need at a glance saves me a lot of time. I don't have to search in multiple areas to find it, because it's already there.

Windows Sidebar uses gadgets to provide this information. A right-click on Windows Sidebar lets you add gadgets from an online gadget gallery, where you can also add other things such as a slide show, stock ticker, or contacts book. You can add a gadget for almost anything you can think of—radio stations, wind speed, feng shui, you name it. You just decide on the gadgets that you want to display and the information automatically updates as long as you're connected to the Internet.

China to build Mecca monorail

RIYADH: A Chinese company has won a contract to build a 1.8 billion dollar monorail to carry pilgrims around the Islamic holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia announced during a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao. China Railway Co won the deal to construct the rail link between Mecca and the holy sites of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah, which are visited by massive tides of pilgrims during the annual hajj, the state news agency SPA said. More than two million Muslims descend on Mecca each year for the pilgrimage. The project was announced at a state dinner on Tuesday hosted by Saudi King Abdullah for Hu, who is on a three-day visit to shore up economic relations with the OPEC powerhouse and discuss energy supplies.

Pak-China friendship necessary for regional peace

BEIJING: Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed Tuesday stressed the need to further consolidate people to people contacts between Pakistan and China adding Pakistan-China friendship is need of the hour for attaining regional peace. “We have good relations at government level, but there is need to strengthen people to people contacts” the JI Chief told media on Tuesday. The Jamaat delegation is currently visiting China at the invitation of ruling Communist Party of China (CPC). Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the delegation at a meeting held today with Vice-Chairperson of National People’s Congress Tali Waldi agreed that the Sino-Pak friendship is immortal and would continue to deepen with the passage of time. He said that the exchanges and contacts between the political parties would bring politicians and parliamentarians of the two countries closer. On the occasion, he also called for further enhancing cooperation in economic field. The delegation, which arrived here on Monday attended a reception the same evening hosted by Ambassador Masood Khan at Pakistan House. On the second leg of their visit to China, the JI delegation will leave here for Xian Wednesday. It will also go to Shanghai on a 3-day visit starting from Feb 14.

Oil prices rebound in Asian trade

SINGAPORE: Oil prices rebounded in Asian trade on Wednesday after data showed a decrease in US oil stocks. New York''s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, gained 40 cents to 37.95 dollars a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for March jumped 50 cents to 45.11 ahead of the contract''s expiry on Thursday. Prices rose after the American Petroleum Institute (API), the industry trade association, reported early Wednesday a two-million-barrel drop in oil inventories in the United States. Mark Pervan, senior commodities analyst for ANZ bank in Melbourne, said it was the first drop in US oil supply in seven weeks. Market reaction to stockpiles data typically develops only after the US Department of Energy reports its figures, which were due later Wednesday, but the API figures may be evidence that output cuts by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are starting to take effect, Pervan said. "We may be starting to see the first impact of reduced OPEC supply," he said.