Tips and Tricks, November, 2003

This one is from WinXP News. Everyone has probably created a desktop image at some time or other from a photo to use as wallpaper. Suppose you could put multiple pictures on your desktop that would appear behind the icons and applications already there. Here's an example.

After the cursor moves off the image, the bar on the top will disappear. When the cursor returns, the bar will return. By putting the cursor on the bar and holding the left mouse button, you can slide the image around behind any icons on the desktop.

Here's how to do it.

Right-click (there it is again!) on the desktop background and click on properties. Click on the Desktop tab and on the Customize button in the lower left corner. After the dialog opens, click on the Web tab and select New on the buttons. Click Browse and navigate to the picture file you want. Click ok, on all buttons to close the dialog. You can lock the location of the picture by checking the Lock desktop items on the Web tab of the same dialog.

Two More Internet Explorer 6.0 Tips

These two tips come from Smart Computing magazine. Do you ever encounter a dialog box in IE reporting a script error and asking if you want to debug the error/ Annoying isn't it, especially as the page appears to work fine after you click "No" on the dialog box. You can get rid of the debugging request by Clicking on Tools, Internet Options. Click on the Advanced tab. Find "Disable Script Debugging" and remove the checkmark from the box. After that, remove the check from "Display a Notification About Every Script Error." Click OK. Restart Internet Explorer.

Save even more keystrokes

This only works on pages that end in ".com," but is useful nonetheless. To enter a page in the address box, type the name, "microsoft" for example. When you press enter to go to the site, hold down the CTRL key. Explorer will add the "www" and the ".com" to the link and you will go there.

Last, but not least

This is another right-click tip. You can perform many management functions for your computer by right-clicking on My Computer. Find "Manage" in the list that pops-up. The Windows Computer Management utility will pop-up. It allows you to look under the hood of your computer and see what's going on. You can access a number of different error logs, check on the health of the storage devices on yours system, access utilities like Disk Defragmenter, and many more. Services and Applications shows you the services available on your computer, what's running, how it started and more. The best part is the description of the service that shows in the left side of the pane.

Try exploring the items in this console.

We're off on vacation for 10 days. See you at the meeting.