7 Hidden Tricks about your Operating System

Few tips for Windows 7 and OSX Lion that can save time and make you more productive

WINDOWS 7   
CREATE A WIRELESS HOTSPOT 

With some free software, you can convert your Windows 7 laptop (or desktop with a Wi-Fi card) into a wireless router to share internet with others. Just get Connectify (www. connectify.me) or Virtual Router (http://virtualrouter.codeplex.com) to enable this feature. Connectify and Virtual Router will not work on older editions of Windows.

VIRTUAL WINDOWS XP 
There are several reasons why you would want to run Windows XP virtually within Windows 7. Maybe you have programs that only work in XP or maybe you're
nostalgic. Whatever your reasons, you can download the necessary files from Here.

WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER 

Windows Media Center (built into Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions) offers more than just multimedia. It offers a 10 foot interface so that you can connect your PC to a TV and enjoy your content on a larger screen. Plus, it displays album art nicely and can stream all sorts of free content.

PLAY NICE WITH XBOX 360 

If you have a Xbox 360 connected to the same network as your Windows 7 PC, you can use Windows Media Center (WMC) to stream photos, music and videos. On the Xbox, note down the 8-digit key from the WMC section in Apps. In WMC, click Tasks > Add Extender and enter the 8-digit key. Now you can access content on the Xbox.

LAUNCH APPS QUICKLY 

Users of older editions of Windows probably don't know that with Windows 7, you can launch programs by just typing their name. Just click the Start button, start typing the name of the program you want to launch and the results will appear real time as you type. Just highlight the correct one and hit the enter button.

PLAY GOD FOR YOUR PC

There are various settings available for Windows 7, sometimes in various places (like control panel, personalisation, network settings menu and so on. With God Mode, you can have all settings in one place. Create a folder & name it GodMode. {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}. More info at Active God mode.

THE PROBLEM STEPS RECORDER 

Sometimes when something goes wrong with your PC, you could spend all day trying to figure out the problem. Instead, use the Problem Steps Recorder to record what's going wrong and send it to someone more knowledgeable for a quick diagnosis. Click the start button and type PSR to bring up the Problem Steps Recorder (psr.exe) — click on 'Start Record' and run through the problem again.

MAC OS X LION 
GET THE DICTIONARY MEANING 

If you want to get the dictionary meaning for a particular word, simply take the cursor over the word and double tap the trackpad using three fingers. The text will get highlighted in yellow and a pop up box will show you the dictionary definition and synonyms from the built in thesaurus.

SEARCH SPECIFIC FILE TYPES ONLY 

While searching using the search box in Finder, type 'kind:' followed by the first alphabet of the file type you are searching for (example, type P for PDF or D for DOC). A drop down menu will show you a list of various file types to choose from. Select the file type you are looking for and then type in the name of the file to search.

REMOTELY WIPE DATA 

If you have setup an iCloud account on OSX Lion, just by logging in to your account from another system, you can send a remote wipe command. This is useful to remotely wipe all the data from the hard drive in case of theft. Note that FileVault encryption service should be activated for this to work.

PREVIEW YOUR SEARCH RESULTS

When you search for anything in OS X Lion using the desktop Spotlight search icon in the top bar, you can get a preview of the search results. Simply move the pointer over one of the search results and it will show you a quick look panel with a preview of the particular file's contents. Note that this works with documents and images only.

LAUNCHPAD WALLPAPER STYLE 

By default, LaunchPad displays the installed applications over a blurred image of your desktop wallpaper. If you don't like that look, then simply press 'Control + Option + Command + B' to switch between various background effect styles.

ADD DIGITAL SIGNATURES TO A PDF 

Open a pdf file in the Preview application instead of Adobe Reader and press Shift + Command + A to bring up the annotations toolbar. Click on Signatures and select 'Create signature from iSight'. Now, sign on a blank piece of paper and hold it up in front of the webcam — it will save your signature digitally. Whenever you want to include your signature in a PDF, just select it from the toolbar and insert it on the page.

SECURE EMPTY TRASH 

Hold the Command button on the keyboard and then alternate (right) click on the Trash icon on the icon dock. The pop up menu will display 'Secure Empty Trash' instead of just 'Empty trash'. The benefit of Secure Empty Trash is that the deleted files cannot be recovered by anyone using basic data recovery tools. Note that using the Secure Empty Trash feature takes more time to empty the trash than normal.

Use Gmail IMAP in Microsoft Outlook 2007

We’ve all been hearing about the new IMAP support in Gmail, but how do we access that from Outlook? Those of you that have been waiting patiently will be happy to know all the instructions are on this page.
Using IMAP we can synchronize email across multiple devices, since the mail stays on the server. You already stopped reading this part and skipped down to the instructions, didn’t you?
Enable IMAP in Gmail Settings
Open your Settings panel in Gmail, and then click on the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab.

Now click the Enable IMAP radio button, and click Save Changes.
Add Account to Outlook
Use the Tools menu you to open the Account Settings panel.

If this is your first account you’ll be prompted for the wizard, otherwise you’ll need to click the New button under the E-mail tab.

Now select the “Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP or HTTP” option and hit next.

Select the checkbox for “Manually configure server settings” and everything on that page will gray out. Hit the next button again.

Now select “Internet E-mail”  (Didn’t we just do this? This wizard is taking too long…)

Finally we can enter some settings! Add in all your personal information here.

Note: If you are outside of the US you may need to use imap.googlemail.com and smtp.googlemail.com instead of imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com.
Note: for Gmail Apps accounts, you’ll need to put in your full email address wherever you see an @gmail.com above. For instance, if your account was geek@howtogeek.com you would put that in the E-mail address field as well as the User Name field.
Click on the “More Settings” button and find the Outgoing Server tab, where you’ll need to check the box for “My outgoing server requires authentication”

Now choose the Advanced tab, and enter the following values (Very important)

• Incoming Server: 993


• Incoming Server encrypted connection: SSL


• Outgoing Server: 587


• Outgoing Server encrypted connection: TLS

Note: If you are having an issue with your sent email not showing up in Gmail, you can use the Folders tab, and then select the [Gmail] \ Sent Mail folder.
Note: Only do this step if your mail is not showing up, otherwise it will duplicate the sent mail.

Now that you’ve closed out that dialog, you can click the Test Account Settings button to make sure everything is going to work.

If all goes well, you should see a success message.

Note: Some ISPs restrict outgoing mail, so if you have a problem sending a test message you’ll need to consult with their documentation.
Accessing Your Mail
Now that everything is working you’ll notice a new set of folders for your Gmail account. (I’m using Gmail apps, which is why you don’t see an @gmail.com email address)
All of your labels will show up as separate folders, and the built-in “folders” in Gmail will be under the new [Gmail] folder.

 
Outlook Flags = Gmail Stars
If you want to star a message in Gmail, you just need to flag it in Outlook. When I flagged this message from Mysticgeek…

 
It shows up in Gmail as a starred message. (And it works the other way too)

Sending Email from Outlook
To send a new email from your Gmail account, just change the “Account” drop-down to your Gmail address before you send a message.

Note that if you only use Gmail, you won’t have this drop-down and it will default to your Gmail.
Final Thoughts
Here’s a few things to keep in mind:

• Gmail Labels = Outlook Folders. To label a message, add it to a folder.


• Gmail Stars = Outlook Flags.


• Do Not move spam messages to the “Junk E-mail” folder in Outlook, move them to the [Gmail] \ Spam folder.


• Outlook has a built-in Search Folder for “Large Mail”, which will let you easily find messages with large attachments.

Now that you can access your starred and labeled messages, you can start using Outlook’s excellent Search Folders to find messages more easily.

Please Click any of the following link

BSOD during install of XP on new Dell E520

BLUE SCREEN ERROR WHILE INSTALLING WINDOWS XP PROF. IN DELL DIMENSION E520.

Getting a "STOP 0x0000007B" error message while installing Windows XP
Setup program into memory on a new Dell PC. It is a Dimension E520
with Intel Pentium D Processor 915 with Dual Core Technology(2.8GHz,
800FSB), 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
256MB nVidia GeForce 7300LE TurboCache and 250GB SATA II Hard Drive
(7200RPM), Or Any Dell Desktop.
 ======================================================================
Restrt the system Go to BIOS options using F2 
In Bios Options
Go to "Drives options"
Select "Sata Operations"

It Should be "raid auto detect /ata" option and press Enter.

Press Esc to save and exit Bios settings. System will restart.
Now install Windows XP Prof. with out error message
Enjoy
"Means Enabling Raid auto detect /ata Sata drivers are auto enable while installing Windows XP Professional."
======================================================================

  The Dell E520 come with SATA2 drives. In the BIOS config, they have RAID turned on by default. There is an option in the BIOS under ‘Drives > SATA Operation’ for ‘RAID/ATA’ or ‘RAID On’. You need to change the setting to ‘RAID/ATA’ as to remove the BSOD from the install procedure.
Nowhere on the internet is this to be found. I searched for hours the first time this came up. The BSOD error is ” STOP: 0×0000007B “.
Sometimes I wonder who makes the decisions for what defaults are on or off???