Microsoft Windows Tips and Tricks: My Computer Talks!

I have a love-hate relationship with my laptop: Any time my laptop enables me to think less and do more work then it’s a good thing. Obviously I love the speed in which my computer enables me to get most things done. But I hateto think that my life is so dependent on computer technology — that without it I’m reduced to an inert mass of goo.

So imagine how thrilled I was to discover that my computer can talk to me.

I kid you not. If I hadn’t learned about it I’d never have believed it. According to a tutorial in Computer Link magazine (www.techny.com), Windows is equipped with a program called Narratorwhich is an accessibility option designed to assist readers who are blind or who have impaired vision. The Narrator option allows your computer to read the words on your screen using the computer’s speakers.

Pretty cool, huh? Follow me on this – it’s actually pretty simple:

Select Start >Programs >Accessories >Accessibility >Narrator

Or try this to achieve the same effect:

Press the “Windows” key plus the letter “U” to open the “Utility Manager”.

Take the time (like I did) to read through the “Introduction Screen” (or you can let Narrator do it for you), click OK and you then see a dialog box of Narrator options. Techny.com points out that assuming you want to leave Narrator running, just select the desired options, and then minimize its dialog box. To turn Narrator off, click the EXITbutton or right-click its taskbar item and select CLOSE.

For more information about the Windows Narrator utility, visit: www.microsoft.com/training

The Case of the Expired Password….

You may have noticed that after you have run Windows XP for a while, you start receiving an annoying message every time you log on: “Your password will expire in 14 days…” You may not know it but by default, Windows XP is set up with passwords which will expire after 42 days. So, 14 days in advance, Windows will start warning you of this fact (and if you set up the Narrator option, your computer will TELL you – which as you may have gathered — I think is very cool.

Anyway, if you don’t want your passwords to expire, go to Start > Run and in the Open: dialog box type control “userpasswords2.” Select the ADVANCED tab in the USER ACCOUNTS window and press the ADVANCEDbutton below the “ADVANCED USER MANAGEMENT” header. Select USERSin the Local Users and Groups in the right pane, right-click the user name for which you want to change the setting, and select PROPERTIES. On the GENERALtab, check “PASSWORD NEVER EXPIRES”. Click APPLY and OK and you are good to go.

I Love My Icons…

On my desktop, I have more icons then I know what to do with. In fact, a lot of times I can’t even find the darn things. If you’re like me and can’t find your icons because they won’t stay in line, then consider ALIGNING them to put them on a grid view: RIGHT-CLICK any empty space on your desktop wallpaper (that’s the back-ground), select ARRANGE ICONS BY and then click on “ALIGN TO GRID.” Your icons will now snap in line to a grid that does not appear on your screen — nice and orderly just the way you need them to be.

Last but not least…a few words about folders…

Don’t forget you can easily customize your folders to suit their contents. Just RIGHT-CLICK the folder and click PROPERTIES. Next, click the CUSTOMIZE tab. From the USE THIS folder pull down the TEMPLATE DROP DOWN MENU and select the type of folder: PICTURES, PHOTO ALBUM, VIDEO, etc. It’s that simple.

And there you go: some cool Windows Tips and Tricks you may or may not have known about. If you already are familiar with these tips then share your knowledge. If this is something new, then file the info away for future use.

Reference:

• www.techny.com