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I'm running out of disk space. How can I free up some space?

Use Windows' Disk Cleanup tool. This utility identifies files that you can delete and enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

You can use Windows' Disk Cleanup utility to remove temporary Internet files, remove downloaded program files, empty your Recycle Bin, remove temporary files, remove optional Windows components that you don't use, and even remove installed programs that you don't use.

To use Disk Cleanup

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean. Disk Cleanup calculates the amount of space you will be able to free.

2. In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list and choose the files that you want to delete.

3. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.

4. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes. When complete the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes.

As a bonus, freeing up some disk space will also make your PC perfom better.

How can I download streaming video to my computer?

You can record Flash-based video (like YouTube and Google video files) with a free website at KeepVid.com Find a video you want to record and copy the link to the page with the video on it into the textbox (in green) on the KeepVid page. KeepVid will save it to a file you can download to your PC. To play the file you can use any .FLV player or download the free one offered by KeepVid.

How do I change the Power button in Windows Vista to shut down my PC instead of going to sleep?

The default behavior for the power button on the Start menu is Sleep. To change it to shut down:

• Click on Start > Control Panel

• Click on Power Options

• Select a power management plan and Change Plan Settings

• Click on Change advanced power settings

• In the Power Options dialog expand Power Buttons and Lid

• Expand Start menu power button

• Click on Setting and then choose the new function. The only choices are Sleep, Hibernate, or Shut down

• Click OK and close

• Close the Control Panel > Power Options > Edit Plan Settings window

Done.

Someone told me about using to open the Start menu in Windows. Are there any other handy Windows keyboard short cuts?

Windows has quite a few built-in shortcuts. These work on all versions of Windows, including Vista.

<F2> - Rename selected file (in Windows) or edit selected cell (in Excel)

<Shift><F3> - For any highlighted text, cycle among all-caps, lowercase, and title case. Click Format, Change Case for more options

<F5> - Refresh your page in Explorer and Web browser windows

<Ctrl><Esc> - Open the Start menu (useful if your mouse won't respond)

<Ctrl><Space> - Reset the highlighted text to the default font (in Word)

<Ctrl>mouse wheel - Zoom in and out on any page

<Windows>L - Password-lock the computer (useful for locking your computer at work)

<Windows>R - Open the Run dialog box

<Windows>M - Minimize all windows

<Windows>-D - Minimize all windows.

<Ctrl>+(num keypad) - Resize a column to fit its comments (in Excel).

<Windows>E - Launch Windows Explorer.

I just upgraded to Internet Explorer7. What happened to the menu bar? File, Edit, View, etc.?

In IE7 the menu bar is not enabled by default. Here's how IE7 looks when first installed.

It's easy to get the Menu bar to display again, right-click just to the right of your last Tab, highlight Menu Bar and left-click. Now your IE7 should look like this:

If you want the menu bar on top just under the blue title bar, here’s a registry hack to fix it. Copy the text below to a new text file on your desktop and save it as IE7_menu_fix.reg. The .reg extension is important. Double-click the .reg file, click Yes and click OK. Close IE7 and open it again.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerToolbarWebBrowser]

“ITBar7Position”=dword:00000001

Now the menu bar is back up top as it has always been.

How can I stop Windows Messenger from asking me to sign in every time I start Windows?

Click Tools in the Windows Messenger window. Click Options and then click the Preferences tab. Uncheck the Run Windows Messenger when Windows starts check box. Click OK.

The next time you log on to your PC Windows Messenger won’t ask you to sign in.

Someone told me to to ram my computer. What did they mean?

They meant you need to add RAM (Random Access Memory) to your computer.

Why would would you need to that? Not that long ago PCs came with 128MB of RAM. Then it was 256MB and most recently 512MB. We're starting to see more and more PCs come with 1GB (1024MB) of RAM standard.

Why so much RAM? Modern operating systems and applications use RAM to speed up the tasks you're doing. As features are added to both the operating system and the applications you use, your computer uses more and more RAM. Memory prices have dropped as the demand as increased so it's not the financial burden it once was to add RAM to your PC.

All things being equal, adding more RAM will make your PC and your applications run faster.

I want to sell my old PC. How do I make sure there isn’t any personal information left on it?

Before you turn it off for the last time, back up all of your data (email, digital pictures, purchased music files) to removable media and make sure you have the physical media (floppies or CDs) for any programs you want to re-install on another computer.

Now that all of your files and programs are backed up delete your document, digital picture, and music files and empty the Recycle Bin. From the Control Panel uninstall all of your programs. That should do it for most users.

If you really, really want to be sure everything is gone you can download a disk erasing program like http://www.killdisk.com/. You’ll need a blank floppy disk – and a floppy disk drive of course. This DOS program runs from a bootable floppy and will overwrite your entire hard disk with zeros. The free version only does one pass while the purchased version will do as many passes as you need. If you do this, your PC will have no operating system installed so be sure to tell whoever you’re selling/giving it to.

How do I protect my formulas in Excel?

OK, this isn't really very intuitive, so pay attention.

In Excel all of the cells in a spreadsheet are protected (locked) but the worksheet itself is not. So you need to do two things to protect your formulas.

First, highlight the cells you DON"T want to protect - the not-formulas part of your worksheet - then right click and choose Format Cells. Click on the Protection tab and uncheck Locked.

Second, from the Excel menu bar choose Tools, then Protection, then Protect Sheet. You can enter a password to unprotect the sheet, but usually it's not necessary. Click OK.

Your formulas are now protected. To make it easier to differentiate between the protected and unprotected areas of the worksheet I usually change the font color in the unprotected areas. I like a nice blue.

Am I backing up my PC correctly?

If you're backing up your PC at all, you're heading in the right direction. The most important thing is to back up your PC - at least once in while - to someplace other than your PC.

WindowsXP comes with a version of the tried and true NTBackup program that will do a good job of backing up your important files to a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM - if your computer is equipped with a CD or DVD burner. If your PC doesn't have a burner you probably have a floppy drive so you can back up your files to a floppy disk. Another very good choice for backups is an external hard drive.

Floppy disks have a capacity of 1.44 MB. CD-ROMS have a capacity of about 700MB or about 480 floppy disks. DVD-ROMs have a capacity of 4.7GB or 6 CD-ROMs or 3,260 floppies. As you can see, you have to pretty selective about which files to back up if you're backing up to floppies.

Which files to back up is up to you. Documents, spreadsheets, and databases are obvious choices. If you'll be backing up your digital pictures and movies (and you should) you should probably look at using a DVD burner. I normally don't recommend backing up music you've ripped from CDs since those files can take up a huge amount of space. You can easily rip the CDs again if necessary. Any music you've downloaded should be copied to a portable MP3 player for safekeeping, if your DRM (Digital Rights Management) allows that sort of thing.

Humans will forget to back up their computers, so I recommend using the Windows Task Scheduler to make sure the backups get done.

If you want more of a how-to post on any of the topics I covered here, let me know in the Comments section.