50 Windows Tips & Tricks -5

41 Move My Documents (XP)
Now that hard disks are larger and cheaper than ever, it’s easy to keep documents and programs separate. If you’ve added a new hard disk, it’s easy to move the My Documents folder over to it. Click the Start button, right-click My Documents and select Properties. Click the Move button and then choose a folder on the new disk. Click OK once again and click Yes to move existing documents to the new folder.

42 Create XPS documents (Vista)
Much like PDF files, XPS documents created in Windows Vista will look the same on any computer used to view them. Any document can be converted to XPS format. To do this choose to print the file, then select the XPS Document Writer. XPS files can be opened and viewed in Internet Explorer 7, or using the free XPS viewer program. This can be downloaded.

43 Restore Preview option to image files (XP)
By default, Windows XP uses its own image preview tool if you double-click an image file. Annoyingly, though, other programs will sometimes take over so double-clicking an image opens that program instead. For those who prefer the preview tool, open the Control Panel, then Folder Options. Select the File Types tab, and scroll down to find the file type in question, such as JPG, then click the Restore button.

44 Disable Windows Defender (Vista)
Windows Vista includes a tool that helps to protect Windows Vista against spyware. If you prefer to use another program to defend against spyware it’s possible to disable Defender. Launch Windows Defender from the Start menu and click Tools, then Options. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and untick the box labelled ‘Use Windows Defender’ before clicking Save.

45 Different web browser for each user (XP)
Windows XP remembers which web browser you prefer to use, but if several different users share a computer it annoyingly assumes they all prefer the same one. To allow different users to choose different web browsers, download a free copy of the DefaultBrowser tool. Double-click the ZIP file and copy the defaultbrowser.exe file to somewhere safe on the hard disk.

Each user can now double-click this program file and select a browser from the menu.

46 Watch your network (Vista)
Vista includes a handy tool that gives a quick visual indication of how busy a home network is. Look for the network icon in the notification area at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen – this looks like two computer monitors, one in front of the other. Right-click it, and select ‘Turn on activity animation’ – the icon will now show when the network is busy.

47 Manage notification area icons (XP)
If you install lots of programs on your computer, the notification area in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen can become full. To make it more manageable, right-click the Taskbar, select Properties and tick the box labelled ‘Hide inactive icons’. This generally works well, but sometimes useful icons can disappear.

If this happens, right-click the Taskbar and select Properties again, then click the Customize button. Click the icon you want to see, then select ‘Always Show’ from the menu to its right and click OK.

48 Copy file location (Vista)
Sometimes it’s useful to know where a file is stored. It’s possible to type the location of a file manually, but this can lead to errors. Instead click Start, select Computer and navigate to the file in question. Hold down the Shift key and right-click the file, then select the option to ‘Copy as Path’. It’s now easy to insert the file location into an email or document – choose paste from the menu or press the Control and V keys together.

49 Advanced Autoplay (XP)
When you insert a CD or DVD into a Windows XP computer, Windows will pop up an Autoplay window asking you what to do with it. This can be very handy, but if you want to do the same thing each time it can be skipped. Open My Computer, right-click on the CD or DVD drive and select Properties, then click the Autoplay tab.

Select a type of file from the dropdown menu, then choose the action you want the computer to perform from the list below it. For example, we like to set ‘Mixed Content’ discs so Windows will ‘Open folder to view files’ without asking us each time. Different options can be set for each different type of files.

50 Quick internet test (XP)
Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether a broadband internet connection is broken, or whether there’s a problem with your web browser. For a quick way to tell, press the Windows key and R together to launch the Run box, then type cmd and press Enter. A black window will appear. Type ping www.computeractive.co.uk and press Enter. Windows will attempt to connect to our website.