WindowsTalk.org » General

Microsoft’s Arc Touch Mouse

James — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:11:14 +0000

Microsoft’s newest mouse flattens to be the ultimate portable device.

From a Microsoft Presspass:

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 1, 2010 — Some say the mouse’s days are numbered, but today Microsoft Corp. proves the gadget is alive and well by unveiling the Arc Touch Mouse, the first mouse designed to flatten for portability and pop up for comfort. The new mouse features Microsoft’s first touch scroll strip for easy navigation — just move a finger slowly for controlled scrolling or flick for hyperfast scrolling. Windows-based PC users will love packing up their laptop bags without the added bump of a mouse, as the Arc Touch Mouse flattens with just the touch of a finger.

As the computing landscape evolves to offer new ways of interacting, such as touch screens and touch pads, the mouse is also evolving but holds true to its core purpose: providing comfort and precision to users when navigating the PC.

“This is not the first time that the mouse has been threatened — look at 10 years ago when people started buying laptops that had integrated pointers and touch pads. Still, the mouse category continued to grow and grow,” said Brett Ostrum, general manager for the Hardware Group at Microsoft. “The reasons people need external mice will not change: comfort and precision. The Arc Touch Mouse just demonstrates again how committed Microsoft is to continuing to bring great new mice to consumers.”

Read the rest of the press release here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/sep10/09-1ArcTouchPR.mspx

Join the forum discussion on this post

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Flash Drive Troubleshooting

James — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:37:27 +0000

Run a Free scan to check your PC for outdated drivers

By Evan X Smith
Almost all flash drive problems: “Flash drive not recognized”, “Jump memory stick access denied”, or your memory stick simply not showing up can be traced back to 2 simple reasons.

Your computer, or your drive simply screwed up. Technology seems to “screw up” more often than not these days so it is understandable. Thankfully this is an easy fix. Take out your flash drive, restart your computer and try again. This takes a minute or two on average and is so easy a caveman could do it.
Your USB memory stick is dead. This can happen for a variety of reasons. Jump drives have a limited lifespan. Computers usually last around five years, TV’s can go for ten or more. The lifespan of a flash drive is a completely different topic but on average you should be able to get 2-5 good years out of your drive depending on how often you use it.

Another reason why jump drives die is because of viruses. The best way to avoid viruses is to make sure what you download to your drive is completely safe. You also need to make sure you stick your drive into computers that are completely clean.

The last [popular] reason why jump drives die is because their files become corrupted. Do you know the annoying “click here to safely remove USB memory stick button”? That button is a very important one that should not be overlooked. Removing your drive without clicking the button can cause your downloads to stop before they are done, which means they could corrupt your entire drive.

Flash drive recognition

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Evan_X_Smith
http://EzineArticles.com/?Flash-Drive-Troubleshooting&id=4960093

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

5 Tips to Reduce Printing Costs

James — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:51:52 +0000

By Nicholas Knowles (Contributed)

Print in “Draft Mode”

Depending on what you will use your document for, you may consider doing all your prints in “Draft Mode”. “Draft mode” uses less ink resulting in print that is slightly grey in colour or a shade lighter than the standard dense black ink used by most printers. While this may be suitable for prints you do for yourself, use the regular printing mode for more formal documents. A good way to ensure that you won’t be printing in the regular print mode at all times is to set the default to “Draft Mode”.

InkSmile.com – Smile at our prices!

Print smaller text sizes

If you are one of those people who prefers to print in larger fonts this may actually be working against you. Use smaller fonts and remove any “Bold” formatting from the document. By choosing more condensed fonts and smaller font sizes, for example no larger than font size 12, you will decrease the amount of ink required to print each document. Additionally you will waste less paper printing.

Save paper by forgoing double spacing and printing on both sides

For larger documents especially those that may require ten pages or more, forgo double spacing and use single spaced formatting to reduce the number of pages that will be required. While double spacing will make reading easier it will waste unnecessary paper, albeit no more ink will be used in either single or double spaced formatting. You should also set your printer to print on both pages of your paper. Some printers have an automatic setting to do this while with others you will need to turn over manually.

Always use “Print Preview” and “Shrink to Fit”

Use print preview to check how many pages and the formatting before printing. You run the risk of printing a document that is not easily read or that goes beyond the formatting lines, meaning that many of your words will be cut short making the print unusable. After using print preview make the formatting changes necessary to ensure a proper print. When printing from a web browser use shrink to fit to guarantee that the document will fit on one the necessary amount of pages.

Buy Compatible Printer Cartridges or have your Cartridges refilled

You may save money by purchasing generic or compatible ink cartridges or toner cartridges. Not all brands will have generic versions available; however you can check several online stores for the brands that does. Another way to save on the price of replacing the ink is to use refilled cartridges. By having your old printer cartridges refilled you may be able to save a substantial amount of money. The quality of refilled cartridges will not be suitable for photographic printing. However you will still be able to do regular prints without any noticeable difference in quality.

InkSmile.com – Smile at our prices!

Nick is a self-confessed computer geek and printing enthusiast, he writes for Ink Factory, a British company that has been in the printer supplies business for over ten years; as well as selling ink cartridges, the Company also operates Inkfactory.org, a site that promotes ink cartridge recycling.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicholas_Knowles

http://EzineArticles.com/?5-Tips-to-Reduce-Printing-Costs&id=4144238

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tip: The Right-Click Trick

James — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:09:23 +0000

Well, it is not really a ‘trick’, but I am always amazed when I show the right-click mouse option to some and they never knew it existed.

What is the right-click and what can it do?

Well, it depends on what program you are currently in or where you are in Windows itself.

For example, right-click a blank area of your desktop and this is what you will likely see:

Now, right-click the Computer icon on your desktop (if you have it displayed) and you will see different options:

You get the idea now; the right-click menu can be a like a group of shortcuts related to the item clicked.

How about extending the options available? I have been using a great little freeware product called ‘Right-Click Extender’ which adds (or can add, it is up to you) quite a few options to the right click menu. It is now in version 2 and can be downloaded from The Windows Club site: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/right-click-context-menu-extender-for-windows-7-released

My two favourite options that Right-Click Extender adds is ‘Copy to…’ and ‘Move to…’ when you click on a file:

Right-Click Extender v2 adds many new options from the previous version. Right-Click Extender is designed for Windows 7, but should work with Windows Vista as well. While not designed for Windows XP some features will work with XP as well, but if you try it and you don’t find the feature added, this is due to certain features not being available for XP.

For more information and to download your copy of Right-Click Extender visit: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/right-click-context-menu-extender-for-windows-7-released

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How to Setup Printer Sharing on Windows 7 For Use on Windows XP

James — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:56:05 +0000

By Erik Mjelde
Printer sharing on Windows 7 is necessary if you have a USB printer or parallel (LPT) printer. Newer printers may have Wi-Fi or a LAN connection for sharing with multiple computers. By setting up printer sharing, you are enabling other networked computers to connect and print.

Let’s start with setting up Windows 7 for printer sharing.

1. Click “Start” and open “Control Panel”, then click “Devices and Printers”.

2. Right click the printer you would like to share and click “Printer Properties”

3. Choose the “Sharing” tab and checkmark “Share this printer”, then click “Apply”

4. Choose the “Security” tab. If you are setting this up for yourself or you trust all the people on the network click “Advanced”. Choose Everyone and click “Remove”. Click “Add”, Advanced, then “Find now”. Find Everyone in (RDN) and click “Ok” twice. Checkmark all the boxes in the Permission entry window, then click “Ok”. Now it should say full control for everyone. Click “Ok” twice.

5. Click “Start” and open “Control Panel”, then click “Network and Sharing Center”. To the left click “Change Adapter Settings”.

6. Right click the adapter that you are using on the network and choose “Properties”. Double click “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)”.

7. Choose “Use the following IP address:”. We must change your IP settings from DHCP to Static. If you do not know what to put here, right click the adapter you are using on the network and click “Status”, then “Details”. For the IP address type the numbers you see under “IPv4 Address”. For example, you may see something like 192.168.1.2. You may also use the same subnet mask and default gateway you see in the details window. Because we have chosen to “Use the following IP address:”, “Use the following DNS server addresses:” has now become necessary. Fill in “Preferred DNS server:” with the default gateway IP address and the “Alternate DNS server” with the “IPv4 DNS Server” address you see in the details window.

8. In “Network and Sharing Center”, to the left, click “Change advanced sharing settings”. Scroll down to “Password protected sharing”, under “Home or Work”, and make sure it is set to “Turn off password protected sharing”.

This concludes the Setup of the Windows 7 system. We will now turn to the Windows XP system to setup the printer for sharing. There are two ways to do this.

For printers with network driver setup, like most HP drivers, just follow the steps to connect to the network printer when you load the drivers. The drivers for your printer can more than likely be found on the venders website. If not, you will have to search them out or use a similar models driver.

For printers that only come with the local USB driver setup, follow these steps.

1. Connect the printer to the Windows XP system. Install the Windows XP drivers for that printer.

2. Run a test print to be sure the printer is functioning on the Windows XP machine and then reconnect it to the Windows 7 system.

3. Click “Start” and open “Control Panel”, then click “Printers and Faxes”. Right click the printer you have just added and choose “Properties”.

4. Click the “Ports” tab, then click “Add Port” from the bottom of the window. Choose “Standard TCP/IP Port” and click “Next”. Click “Next” on the Welcome to the Add Standard TCP/IP Port Wizard page. Type “\\” followed by the IP address of the windows 7 system (example: \\192.168.1.2), then click “Next”. Click Finish and you are all done. Right click the printer and go to “Properties” to run a test print.

As you can see, it is possible to share a USB or LPT printer on Windows 7 with your Windows XP systems. Follow these steps and you should be up and running in no time.

Warmest Regards,

Erik Mjelde

http://www.HonestGuyComputerRepair.com, Los Angeles, California, PC & Laptop Technical Support Team.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Erik_Mjelde
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Setup-Printer-Sharing-on-Windows-7-For-Use-on-Windows-XP&id=4888616

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.