Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Test Drive Windows Vista in Your Browser
You can test drive Windows Vista in your browser. Just visit http://www.windowsvistatestdrive.com
where Microsoft has a hosted version of Vista where you can kick the tires a bit.
Of course there are some caveates before you begin. Only Windows Internet Explorer allowed and you must install an Active X ‘Virtual Server VRMC Advanced Control’ to start and of course a high speed connection is a requirement.
After you have it running in your browser you can choose from main features on the left and options on the right. You can choose either to view a video of the feature or do an actual test drive. The test drive is so slow even on an ADSL connection it may not be worthwhile for most curious testers.
Monday, October 16, 2006
How to Change A Drive Letter In Windows
I use Microsoft’s free backup tool SyncToy to do basic backup of several important folders onto an external usb drive. SyncToy does not allow the user to change drive letters once set in the application.
That poses a problem when plugging and unplugging numerous external devices like digital cameras, PDAs and flash drives. The assigned drive letters change as you add or remove peripherals. When SyncToy is run again, the drive letter originally assigned in SyncToy may not exist.
To manually change the drive letter in Windows XP go to the Control Panel.
- click on Performance and Maintenance (in Category view) or Administrative Tools/ Computer Management/Disk Management (in Classic view)
- right click drive, partition or volume you wish to change drive letter
- click Change Drive Letter and Paths
- click Add
- click Assign the following drive letter and select the drive letter from the menu
- click OK
The drive letter will be assigned to the drive, partition or volume you specified and the drive letter will show up in the Disk Management tool and in My Computer.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Tile Browser Windows on Your Windows Desktop
You can display any two windows side by side on the desktop by first clicking a window’s button on the Taskbar. Next, press and hold the Ctrl key and right-click the second window that you want to open, then click Tile Vertically. This works great when you want to view two Word or Internet Explorer windows at the same time.
Here’s a quick Windows tip for bloggers who want to blog while doing other work. Display two windows side by side on the desktop by left clicking the first application on the taskbar, then press and hold the Control key and right click the second application on the taskbar, then click Tile Vertically.
Alternatively, if you want to have two equal sized browser windows open side by side for blogging while visiting your favorite sites, close all browser windows except two, then right click the browser in the taskbar then click Tile Vertically.