Windows Tips

Hello Again,

If you get to know me you'll find that I hate to do things the long, hard, tedious, boring way.

I always look for the fast, efficient, and effective way to do things.

That's why I want to share some of my favourite 'Non-Excel' tips with you. I'm sure you'll find these everyday tips helpful,

In fact, just learning a few key shortcuts in your favourite programs can save you a tremendous amount of time and frustration.

Many of you may already know some of these tips but I would be pretty safe in assuming that most of you will be pleasently suprised to discover some new easy-to-apply tips that you could be using every day.

An Easier Way To Maximize Or Restore A Window

We all know that to Maximize or Restore a window we click on the middle button of the three small icons on the top right-hand corner of the window. Those buttons are pretty small and, I don't know about you, but sometimes I accidentally click the X button and close the window by mistake.

Here's a bigger target for you to click on. Double click the title bar (i.e. the colored bar at the top of the window) and it will Maximize a window that is not maximized and restore a window that is maximized.

Quick Access To The Address Toolbar

These days the Internet is so important to all of us, we always want quick access to it. One of my favorite timesavers is to add an Address bar to the taskbar at the bottom of my screen so that it is always visible no matter which program I'm working in.

To add the Address bar simply right click on any gray area of the taskbar and choose Toolbars, Address. You can resize the Address bar by dragging the left edge of the bar.

Now whenever you need quick access to a particular website, there's no need to minimize any windows, just type the address in the Address bar and press Enter.

Removing The > Marks When Forwarding Email

Have you noticed that sometimes when you reply to or forward an email, Outlook Express uses > marks to indent the original message. I said sometimes because this applies only to plain text messages.

When you reply to or forward an email and see all those > marks, you can easily prevent them from showing up in the first place. Before you click on Reply or Forward, go to Tools, Options and click the Send tab. You'll see two Plain Text Settings buttons. Click on the first one and a dialog box will pop up. Remove the check mark from the "Indent the original text..." option and then click OK and OK again.

Now you can select the message to reply to or forward and the > marks will be gone.

Bring Order To Your Programs Menu

As you install more and more programs on your computer, you'll notice that each new program gets added to the bottom of the Programs menu. When you go to run a program (Start, Programs), finding the right one can sometimes be a little difficult. Bring some order to this chaos by resorting these program shortcuts in alphabetical order.

Click Start, Programs, right-click on any of the listed programs and select 'Sort by Name' from the shortcut menu.

Moving An EXE file

If you download files from the Internet, you will have noticed that many of these downloadable files are in EXE file format. Often these files are self-extracting zip files or self-contained programs.

If you download an EXE file to your Downloads folder and, later on decide you want to drag it to another folder, you will find that by default, Windows creates a Shortcut in the location that you drag the file to. Most people get around this problem by using Cut and Paste. An easier way to avoid this behaviour by holding down the Shift key while dragging the file. Shift tells Windows you want to MOVE the file.

Printing Background Colors In Internet Explorer

You may or may not have noticed this before but whenever you print a web page, the background colors and background graphics don't print. The text and all other graphics prints but the background doesn't. This is good, because you don't want to be wasting all of your printer ink (or toner) unnecessarily.

Sometimes, however, you may want to print a web page exactly as it is viewed on the screen, background and all. To make this possible you just need to temporarily change one simple setting.

1. From the Internet Explorer menu, select Tools, then choose Internet Options...

2. Click on the Advanced tab

3. Scroll down until you see a printer icon on the left side of the list.

4. Place a check mark in the 'Print background colors and images' option.

Tabbing Backwards

Many people have figured out that they can press the Tab key to move from one 'control' to another in most programs. Controls are the objects in a program that you interact with such as buttons, text boxes, option buttons, etc...

On the other hand, it has also been my experience that most people don't realize that they can move backwards through these same Controls by holding down the Shift key while pressing the Tab button.

Notice that I said "many people" have figured it out. I often see people filling in a form by clicking on the first field with the mouse, typing with the keyboard, reaching for the mouse and selecting the next field, then back to the keyboard to fill in that field, reaching for the mouse again to click the next field. On and on till the form has been completed.

Using the Tab key to navigate these controls is a much more efficient method. If you see someone doing this 'keyboard-mouse shuffle', please do them a favour and tell them about the Tab key.

Not Sure If You Should Open That Email?

Do you get lots of spam and junk email? Not sure if its safe to open them? Most junk email is obvious and can be safely deleted, but there are always a few that you're not quite sure of.

Here's a low-tech solution that I use with Outlook Express to see what's in an email without actually opening it.

1. From your Inbox, right click on the message and choose Properties.

2. Click on the Details tab.

3. Click the Message Source button on the bottom.

4. Maximize the Message Source window.

5. You can now see the contents of the message and the type of attachment, if any, without the risk of launching any offending attachments.

Printing Web Pages That Are Too Wide

It happens to me a lot, so I'm sure you must have encountered this problem also. You try to print a web page but it's too wide, and the right side of the page gets chopped off.

The simplest solution is to print the page in landscape mode.

In Internet Explorer, select File, Page Setup, choose Landscape, and click OK. Now print the page.

Got Questions? Find Answers

Most people have seen the little question mark in the top right- hand corner of most Windows dialog boxes. But most users never even question what it's for.

Just try it. Click on it and a question mark attaches to your cursor arrow. Then click on anything in the dialog box and a very helpful explanation of that dialog box item will pop up.

Open A Text File In A Non-Associated Program

A while ago I showed you how you could open a file from Windows Explorer in a program that it wasn't associated with by using File, Open With... I'll fill you in on that tip a bit later.

When you double-click on a text file in Windows Explorer, does it automatically open in Microsoft Word, or some other bulky word processing program? There may be times when you would prefer to open a text file in a smaller, simpler program like NotePad or WordPad.

There is another option to open the file in a different program without changing file associations.

1. Make sure the program you want the file to open in is open. In this example we'll use NotePad.

2. Locate the text file in Windows Explorer.

3. Left-click the file and drag it to the NotePad button on the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen. Don't drop it yet!

4. Hold the cursor over the button for a second or two and the NotePad application window will pop up. Don't drop it yet!

5. Drag the file up to the middle of the NotePad window and NOW you can drop it.

6. The text file will open in NotePad.

Note that this procedure will also work with many other file types and programs. I often open TXT files, CSV files, and LOG files in Excel using this procedure. Experiment with it to see what works for you.

If you find that you are always using a certain program to open a certain file type this way, you may want to change the file association for that file type so that you can simply double- click in Windows Explorer to open it. To do this, left click the file, hold down the Shift key while clicking File on the menu, click Open With..., select the program, and select the 'Always use this program...' option. Now every time you double-click a file of that type, it will automatically open in that program.

What's Printing?

How many times have you been printing several documents and lost track of which ones you had sent to the printer? Say you are on the Internet and have found a site that contains a ten-step article (one step on each page) that you'd like to print. You are half way through printing and are interrupted. Now you don't remember if you printed step 6. Do you wait till everything finishes printing to find out?

No way! Notice the small printer icon that appears on the Windows taskbar when jobs are printing. Double-click it and you'll see the status of your printing jobs.

Dragging And Dropping Safely

For years I have been dragging and dropping files in Windows Explorer. Occasionally I will accidentally drop a file in the middle of the drag operation and not know which folder I dropped it in. (Solution: Click Edit, Undo) Sometimes, in the middle of the drag, I will change my mind. (Solution: Press the ESC button before releasing the mouse button).

Recently I've been trying to break this habit by using the right mouse button instead. Using the right mouse button for dragging and dropping files is a much safer procedure because you are given a menu of options to choose from. However, left dragging is faster if you are familiar with Windows' default behaviors and if you don't make mistakes. Maybe that's why I can't break the habit.

Tired Of Waiting For The Download

Next time you are downloading a large file from the web, instead of sitting around twiddling your thumbs while it downloads, press CTRL+N to open a new browser window. Now you can surf away on the Internet as you are waiting for the download to complete. Sure this may slow the downloading a little, but at least you won't be bored.

Escaping From Drag-And-Drop

If you frequently move or copy files between folders in Windows Explorer you, no doubt, have come across one or both of these situations.

1) You are dragging a file from one folder to another and change your mind.

2) You are dragging a file from one folder to another and accidentally release the mouse button and drop the files, but you don't know which folder you dropped them in.

When I was first learning Windows, making one of these blunders was a little scary because I didn't know what to do. I started looking though the folders for the lost files. Luckily, there are simple solutions to each of these problems.

1) If you want to abort in the middle of a drag-and-drop, simple press the Escape key on your keyboard before releasing the mouse button.

2) If you accidentally drop a file in the maze of folders in Windows Explorer you can easily reverse that mistake by selecting Edit, Undo or using the keyboard shortcut for Undo (CTRL+Z).

The Advantage Of Working With Multiple Windows

Often it is necessary for you to work with more than one Window, such as copying information from your browser and pasting it into MS Word. If you find yourself switching back and forth between two Windows often, you may find that all this switching back and forth can be a bit of a pain.

Try this instead.

On the top right corner of each window there are three small buttons, Minimize, Restore/Maximize, and Close. The middle button either shows the Restore button (two small squares) or the Maximize button (one large square).

1. On the first window you want to work with, click the Restore button. If the restore button is not shown, go to step 2.

2. Click on the window header (blue bar on top of window) and drag its top left corner to the top left corner of the screen.

3. Move the cursor to the bottom right corner of the window and when it changes to a two-headed diagonal arrow, drag the corner of the window to resize it to fit half of the screen.

4. Now switch to the second window you want to work with and click its Restore button (if it is shown).

5. Resize the window, same as step 3

6. Click on the window header to drag and position the window immediately to the right of the first window.

7. At this point you may need to resize it again from the bottom right corner.

Now that you have both windows in view, you can easily copy and paste, or drag and drop from one window to another. When you are finished, you can click the Maximize (middle) button on each window to return them to full screen.

I'll bet you can think of many situations when this tip could come in real handy.

Stop Your Browser From Automatically Resizing Large Images

Internet Explorer 6.0 automatically resizes large images to fit your screen. This allows you to see the whole image at once. If however you are often view large high-resolution pictures, you may no want this to happen. To prevent Internet Explorer from resizing large images, here's what you can do.

1. From the Tools menu select Internet Options.

2. Click the Advanced tab.

3. Scroll down to the Multimedia section.

4. Remove the check mark from 'Enable Automatic Image Resizing'.

5. Click OK.

Using Bcc To Keep Forwarded Email Addresses Safe

How often do you receive emails, such as jokes, that have dozens or even hundreds of email address listed of others who were also forwarded the same message?

Often you will like the joke and decide to send it to all of your friends and family. Many of them will do the same. Now your email address (and everyone else's) has been broadcasted all over cyberspace. Did you ever consider that these emails may sometimes end up in the Inbox of a spammer? Not only will the spammer put all these addresses in his database for sending junk mail, he will likely sell his list to other spammers. The result is everyone begins receiving hundreds of unwanted junk emails.

Instead, if you want to forward the message to others, (1) add the names to the BCC field and (2) delete any email address in the body of the email.

Many email programs, by default, don't show the BCC field. For example, in Outlook Express you need to select View, All Headers from a new message window. If you use a different email program you may have to check its Help menu.

Trapped In A Webpage (Internet Explorer)

Have you ever visited a webpage and pressing the Back button on your browser wouldn't return you to the previous site. You were 'stuck' in that website. This is becoming very common on the Internet so you have probably already experienced it.

I don't know why people design websites to do that. Do they think you will stay there because your Back button doesn't work? It is very frustrating when it happens and I always make a note never to return to that website again.

There is a simple solution to this, rather than closing your browser window. There is a small dropdown arrow on your Back button. Clicking on the arrow will reveal a list of recently visited sites. Anytime you are 'stuck' in a website, you can escape by selecting

Easily Save Web Graphics

Do you often see a picture or other graphic on a website that you'd like to save? Simply right-click on it, click Save Picture As, select the folder where you want to save it and click the Save button. That was pretty easy, right?

Well, now I'm going to show you another even faster way.

1. Open Windows Explorer and open the folder where you want to save the graphic.

2. Resize your browser window so that it takes up the left half of the screen and the right side (2 pane view) of the Windows Explorer window is visible behind.

3. Position your mouse pointer over the graphic you want to copy.

4. If the pointer changes to a 'white arrow' you can just drag (using the right mouse button) the graphic from your browser and drop it right in the folder in Windows Explorer. Select 'Copy here' from the popup menu and the graphic is saved to the folder.

5. If the pointer changes to a 'hand', that means that the graphic is a hyperlink to another document. In that case you'll have to right-click on the graphic and select Copy from the popup menu, right-click the Windows Explorer window and click Paste from the popup menu and the graphic is saved to the folder.

BONUS TIP: You can also insert a graphic directly into Excel by using right-click, Copy and right-click, PasteSpecial, Bitmap.

'Open With' File Options

For anyone who is a frequent computer user (I'm assuming you are), no doubt you have come across a situation where you have wanted to open a particular file in a particular program but when you double-clicked on the file, it opened in a different (default) program.

For example, if your text files (*.txt) open by default in NotePad and occasionally you need to open a text file in Microsoft Word, you have several options.

1. You can open Word and click File, Open and browse to open the text file.

2. In Windows Explorer, you can hold down the Shift key while clicking the File menu and that will give you a new 'Open With' option where you can choose which program to open the file in.

3. If the program you want to open the file in is already open, you can easily drag the file to the program's icon on the Windows taskbar and, with the mouse button held down, hold it there for a second or two until the program 'pops up', then drag and drop the file onto the program window and the file will open in that program.

Email A Webpage Link To A Friend

I'll bet you often come across a webpage that you think might interest a friend or colleague.

Rather than open your email program, start a new email message and type out the webpage address (or copy the link from the Address Bar), there's a much quicker way to zip off your recommendation in a few seconds.

In Internet Explorer click on the File menu, move down to Send, and click 'Link by E-mail.' A new email message will open with a hyperlink to the current website already included. Just fill in your friend's email address and click Send.

Note that, on the Send menu you also have an option (Page by E-mail) to send the complete webpage by email but my experience with this option is that, if there are graphics on the page, many of them are missing when the email arrives.

Email A Webpage Link To A Friend

I'll bet you often come across a webpage that you think might interest a friend or colleague.

Rather than open your email program, start a new email message and type out the webpage address (or copy the link from the Address Bar), there's a much quicker way to zip off your recommendation in a few seconds.

In Internet Explorer click on the File menu, move down to Send, and click 'Link by E-mail.' A new email message will open with a hyperlink to the current website already included. Just fill in your friend's email address and click Send.

Note that, on the Send menu you also have an option (Page by E-mail) to send the complete webpage by email but my experience with this option is that, if there are graphics on the page, many of them are missing when the email arrives.

Printing Files Directly From Windows Explorer

Did you know that you don't have to open up a file to print it?

Here's a little known trick that lets you to print files right from Windows Explorer without having to open its associated program first.

Simply right-click on the file in Windows Explorer and select Print from the popup menu. If you need to print multiple files, just hold down the CTRL key while selecting the files you want to print. Then right-click and Print.

The way this works is Windows opens the application associated with each file, prints the file(s), and then immediately closes the application.

Simple Tips For Better Web Searching

There are millions of web pages out there on almost every topic. Every time you do a search it seems to bring up thousands of results which are impossible to make sense of.

For better search results try some of these tips.

1. Use double quotes ( " ) around words that are part of a phrase.

2. Enter a plus sign ( + ) in front of words that must appear in your results.

3. Enter a minus sign ( - ) in front of words that must not appear in your results.

Searching Your IE Favorites

Most Internet surfers who spend any amount of time on the web are proud owners of an unwieldy Favorites list . Unless you're super- organized, it can often be a quite chore to find a certain shortcut in that chaos. Internet Explorer doesn't provide an obvious way to search your Favorites folder.

Here's a trick I use anytime I can't find a shortcut that I know is in there somewhere.

1. From the Internet Explorer menu select Favorites

2. Move the cursor down and right-click on one of the folders.

3. Click on Find. (The Find dialog box appears).

4. Click in the 'Look In' field and delete all text to the right of \Favorites\

5. Enter your search term in the Named field.

6. Click Find Now.

Find That Missing Web Page

What do you do when you try to go to a web page but you get an error message saying the page is missing? Do you assume that the page doesn't exist anymore? Wrong answer!

The next time you get this 'HTTP 404 - File not found' error, a little investigative work will usually uncover the missing page for you. Most times pages are missing because a website has been reorganized and the page's address has been slightly changed. Here's a good example.

Up to last month my November 12th 'Quick Tip' was located at "http://www.theexceladdict.com/quicktips/qtip054.htm". If you try to follow that link now, you won't find it because Mr Francis recently reorganized his website - but the page is still there.

Start off by removing the last forward slash and everything to the right of it from the web address and try that link. If that takes you to a web page, check for links that may lead you to the page you are looking for. If you get another '404 Error', continue removing the next forward slash and everything to the right of it. Chances are you WILL find the page you are looking for.

Adjust Text Size In Internet Explorer

Ever notice that some web pages have very small print that is hard to read? You can change the size of font in Internet explorer by selecting View, Text Size, and selecting the size you want.

Note that this will change the text size indefinitely until you choose to change it back.

If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, here's a cool trick you can use to easily adjust the text size on webpages. Hold down the CTRL key while moving the scroll wheel to adjust the text size up or down. This is much easier and quicker for changing the text size.

Quickly Copy Files In Windows Explorer

Last week my "Quick Tip" showed you how to open a duplicate of an existing Excel workbook. I got a great tip from fellow Excel addict Steve Basford who suggested a simple way to copy a workbook (or any other file for that matter) in Windows Explorer.

1. Select a file in Windows Explorer.

2. Press CTRL+C (copy)

3. Select the folder where you would like to place the copy and press CTRL+V (paste)

Thanks Steve.

Here's another great tip to use when copying a single file or multiple files in Windows Explorer.

1. Select the file you want to copy (for multiple files hold down the CTRL key and select each file).

2. Make sure the destination folder is in view in the left pane of your Explorer window. Drag the selected files by holding down the CTRL key and holding down your left mouse button then drop (i.e. release the mouse button) them in the destination folder.

Note: When you hold down the CTRL key while dragging a file, you'll notice a small "plus sign" in the small sheet icon as you are dragging. This indicates that the file is being "copied." If you don't hold down the CTRL key, there will be no "plus sign" and therefore the file will instead be "moved" from the original folder to the destination folder - a very important point to remember.

Restore Those Taskbar Buttons In Windows XP

Recently one of my newsletter readers, Joel Young, discovered that after getting Windows XP, the taskbar (at the bottom of the screen and to the right of the Start menu) no longer displayed a separate button for each open window. Now the windows for each open program were grouped on one button on the taskbar. Therefore, if he had five Excel spreadsheets open, there was only one Excel button on the taskbar. When he clicked on this button he would get a pop-up menu showing a list of all open Excel workbooks. Then he had to select from this list in order to switch to a particular workbook.

Joel preferred having separate buttons for each open window. I have to agree. It makes it much easier for switching between windows.

If you do too and would like to change Windows XP back here's a simple solution:

1. Right-click on the Taskbar.

2. Choose Properties.

3. Under the Taskbar tab, remove the check mark from the "Group similar taskbar buttons"

4. Click OK.

Now isn't that better?

If you're using Excel 2000 and don't see separate buttons in the taskbar, choose Tools, Options, and on the View tab place a check mark in 'Windows in Taskbar'.

If you're still using Excel 97 or Excel 95 you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about. It's only been since Excel 2000 that Windows displays taskbar buttons for each open window. So, this tip doesn't apply to you. You still have to use the Window menu to switch between open Excel workbooks. Or if you remember my tip from a couple of months ago, you can use the much faster CTRL+F6 keyboard shortcut.

The Easiest Way To Rename A File

When you're working in Windows Explorer and you want to rename a file, you can click File, Rename or you can right-click and select Rename.

But there's an even easier way. With the file selected just hit the F2 key on your keyboard and type the new name.

I also use this tip when I need to copy a filename to another document. Just four simple and quick steps.

1. Hit F2 to edit,

2. CTRL+C to copy,

3. ALT+Tab to switch to the other document,

4. CTRL+V to paste.

Free Up Screen Space In Internet Explorer

If you've been using Internet Explorer for a while, you are probably familiar with all of the toolbar buttons. You can free up some screen space by removing the text descriptions from the toolbar buttons.

Right-click on the toolbar and select Customize. From the Text Options dropdown, select 'No text labels' and click Close.

If your eyesight is good you can also select Small Icons from the Icons Option dropdown to give you even more free space.

Quickly Close Multiple Windows

How many times have you been surfing the net and found that you have way too many windows open. You need to close some of them to free up some space on your taskbar, so you select and close them one by one.

Here's a quick way to close a bunch of them all at the same time. Hold down the CTRL key and click on each program's button in the task bar. Right-click one of the selected buttons and choose Close.

Quickly Change Your HomePage (Internet Explorer)

If you decide that you'd like to change the page that first opens in Internet Explorer to the one that you are currently viewing, the quickest way is to drag the icon from the address bar and drop it onto the Home button on the toolbar.

Cool! I just learned this one this week.

Find That Lost File

If you're already familiar with this tip, you know what a time-saver it is. If you don't, pay attention.

I see this almost every day and it drives me crazy. Someone is looking for a file on their computer but they don't remember where it is or what the filename is. They have a hard copy but there's no filename printed on it.

Windows makes it so easy to find files on your computer that it's a crime that most people don't know how to do it. Sometimes I will just stand back and watch people look for a file on their computer to see how they do it. At times I've seen three people huddled around a computer giving their suggestions of where to look.

Then I step forward and say, "Let me look. Oh, here it is." In a minute or less, depending on the speed of your computer, you should be able to find any file on your hard drive as long as you know something of what's in the document.

Click on Start, Find, and then 'Files or Folders' to bring up the 'Find All Files' dialog box.

If you know the name of the file but don't remember which folder it is in, type the name, or part of the name, in the 'Named' field. If you don't know the name of the file but do know some text contained within the file, type that text in the 'Containing text' field. There are other options on the Date and Advanced tab which you can experiment with at another time.

Make sure the location in the 'Look in' field contains the sub- folders where the file you're looking for may be located (i.e. you may select C: to search your whole hard drive).

Now click 'Find Now' and in a short time you will be given a list of files matching your criteria.

Remember this tip because some day you're going to need it. How would you like to recreate a 20 page document because you didn't know how to find it on your computer?

Delete Text The Easy Way

This tip applies to almost any document you can edit in Windows.

You probably know how to delete a word by selecting the entire word and pressing Delete. But did you know there is an even faster way?

As you're typing and you need to delete the word to the left of the cursor, simply hold down CTRL and then press the Backspace key. To delete the word to the right of the cursor, hold down CTRL and press the Delete key. That's much easier than having to reach for the mouse each time you need to delete a word.

To quickly delete many words, repeatedly press or hold down the Backspace or Delete key in the above steps.

Clearing Your Recent Documents List

As you know, Windows makes it easy to access files you have recently used by listing them in Start, Documents menu. However, there may be times when you don't want certain documents listed here for others to see. You can either clear the whole list or clear individual items in the list.

To clear all shortcuts from the Documents list:

1. Click Start.

2. Click Settings.

3. Click Taskbar & Start Menu.

4. Click the Start Menu Programs tab.

5. Click the Clear button then OK.

To clear individual items from the Documents list:

1. Click Start, Documents

2. Right-click on the item in the list that you want removed and click Delete.

You can also go to the C:\Windows\Recent folder in Windows Explorer and choose which shortcuts to delete.

There's also another virtually unknown Recent folder for Microsoft Office documents in C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\ in Windows 98.

Depending on your operating system and if you have multiple user profiles on your computer, you may have to do a search to find these Recent folders. Click Start, Find, Files or Folders enter Recent and click Find Now.

(Note that these items are shortcuts and deleting them won't affect the original files)

Add Google To Your Internet Explorer Toolbar

You may already know that Google is the most popular search engine on the Internet. Maybe you already use it a lot like I do.

But did you know there's a free Google Toolbar you can put right onto your Internet Explorer toolbar to make searching the Net even easier.

Here's how you can get it.

1. Go to http://toolbar.google.com

2. Select your language and click the Get The Google Toolbar button.

3. Click I Agree to the Terms of Use. Another window pops up.

4. Scroll to the bottom of that window and click the button Install Without Advanced Features.

5. Click Yes to the Security Warning and the Google search box will be automatically added to your Internet Explorer toolbar.

There are many great options available with this toolbar that you may want to check out but for everyday searching, just type in your search term and press your Enter key.

I love this because it saves me the trouble of having to go to the Google homepage every time I want to do a search.

I hope you'll like it.

Cover Your Tracks in Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer stores a list of the websites you've visited in its History folder. This is a great convenience when you want to revisit that website you looked at last week. But it also means that anyone else with access to your computer can also see which websites you've visited.

Here's what you can do to get rid of any unwanted website history.

· From the Tools menu, go to Internet Options.

· Under the General tab, find the History section, and click the Clear History button.

If there are only a couple of sites that you want to remove, there's no need to wipe out everything.

· Just click the History button (looks like a sundial) on the Internet Explorer toolbar. You'll see a list of websites displayed on the left of the screen.

· Find the site you want to remove, right-click on its folder and select Delete.

· Can't Remember That Great Website?

· Have you ever visited website and then a few days later wanted to go back but couldn't remember it because you forgot to save it in your Favorites?

· Well, you can still find it. Internet Explorer keeps track of all the sites you have recently visited in it's History folder.

· To see this list of sites, click the History button (looks like a sundial) on the Internet Explorer toolbar. This will open a small window on left side of your browser. You'll see a list of recently visited sites. On the top of that History window, click on the View option and select By Site. Browse through the sites and click on the one you want to visit. If you can't remember the name but you know when you visited the site, click on View By Date. When you're finished with this History option, simply click the History button again to toggle the History window off.

· Surfing The Net Without A Mouse

· Believe it or not, you can surf the Internet without using your mouse.

· You can use the TAB key to move through the links on a web page and when you get to the link you want to follow, just press ENTER. Use the BACKSPACE key to move back to the previous page and to move backwards through the links on a webpage hold down the SHIFT key when you press TAB.

· Why would you even want to do that, you ask?

· Well, you may not want to do this all the time but when you are filling out forms on a web page and have your two hands on the keyboard, it is easier to TAB to a link and press ENTER than to be reaching back and forth between the mouse and the keyboard.

· This tip may save you only a few seconds each time but it sure make working in Windows a lot easier.

So That's What That Key Is For !

Ever wonder what that funny-looking key with the Microsoft Windows symbol on your keyboard is for?

Here are some great timesaving uses for that key:

1. Anytime you need to search for a file on your computer, hold down the Windows key and press the 'F' key. The Find Files dialog box will pop up instantly.

2. Anytime you need to get back to your desktop in a hurry, instead of minimizing the open windows one at a time, hold down the Windows key and press 'M'. Even better, holding down the Windows key and pressing 'D' will also minimize all windows but with the added advantage of being able to restore your windows when you repeat the same Windows key + D shortcut.

3. My favourite shortcut with the Windows key is quickly and easily opening Windows Explorer. Just hold down the Windows key and press 'E' and Explorer will pop up instantly. I use this shortcut a lot because I use Windows Explorer a lot.

Every time I find myself working on a computer that doesn't have a Windows keyboard, I there's a noticable drop in my productivity. I'm lost without it.

Quickly Switch Among Windows Applications

If you are a multitasker like me you probably find yourself switching among several Windows applications you have open all at the same time. Heres a great Windows shortcut that, surprisingly, many are not aware of.

Hold down the ALT key and press the TAB key, you will see a list of all open programs. While still holding down the ALT key, repeatedly press the TAB key until the program you want to switch to is selected. Then release both the TAB and ALT keys and that program's window will pop up. To return to the previous application, just press ALT+TAB again.

This is one of those shortcuts Ive been using for years and assumed everyone else also used. But its surprising how many Windows users aren't even aware of this. If you haven't used this shortcut before, try it, this is one that definitely make things a lot easier for you.