Windows 7/ Vista speed up

Windows 7/ Vista runs too slowly, How can I speed it up?

Speeding Up Vista

Windows Vista/ Windows 7 come with many options to make things a little more flashy and pleasing to the eye. Examples of this are the smooth transitions between windows and graphical alt-tab setup. While these features look good, they are not required to run windows Vista and can be turned off to increase performance on machines that are having trouble running the operating system. 

You can also remove some of the preinstalled "junk" that comes with vista if you do not feel you will need them.  

Turning Off Aero (graphical enhancements)

Turning off the Aero interface will dramatically increase the performance of machines running Windows Vista. Follow the steps below,

1. Go to Start, then Control Panel.
2. Double-click on "Performance Information and Tools".
3. In the left sidebar, click "Adjust visual effects", then select "Adjust for best performance".
4. Click "Apply". Vista may take a minute to display the new interface.

Remove Programs

A number of installations come with unnecessary software that runs in the background; removing this software can help speed up your system. We recommend removing software "extras", such as free games and trial software. Follow the steps below,

1. Go to Start, then Control Panel.
2. Double-click on "Programs and Features".
3. Right-click any application and select "Uninstall" to remove.

Screen Capture

Taking a Screen Capture With Windows 7

The Snipping Tool – Windows 7’s New Screen Capture Tool

The Snipping Tool is a new feature that Microsoft has included with Windows 7. It is a lightweight screen capture tool that can have many applications.   For example let’s say you keep getting an error message and you want the Helpdesk to see what you saw, open the snipping tool and grab a snapshot to send with your helpdesk request. The following article will cover how to use of the Snipping Tool.

Let’s start by opening the Snipping tool. To do this click on the Start Menu and type “snipping tool” in the search box. Above the search box under “Programs” click on “Snipping Tool” to open the application.

This little window is all you need to start taking screen captures. Clicking on the down arrow next to “New” will allow you to choose from four different captures, free-form, rectangular, window, and full screen. Free form capture allows you to draw a capture area with your mouse pointer in any shape you desire. The rectangular capture allows for straight edge rectangular captures. With the window capture you would click on a specific window that you want captured, and full screen capture will capture everything on the entire screen. Once you select your capture method you can then capture the area you want and you will automatically be brought to the Snipping Tool’s editing window.

The Snipping Tool’s editor gives you the ability to highlight sections of the screen capture, or use the pen tool to write notes. There is also an eraser tool to erase any pen or highlighter markings you have made. To use these tools click on the corresponding icon in the menu bar.

Once you have made your changes to the capture you can then click on the disk icon in the menu bar to save you image. By default the application saves captures as a .png, but you can also choose to save as a .gif or .jpg. To do this you would expand the drop down menu under the file name and choose the image format that you are most comfortable with.

The editor also has the ability to send the image as an email, but note in order to email the capture Microsoft Outlook will need to be configured.

As I mentioned before the Snipping Tool is very useful and can have many applications, be it sending error reports to the helpdesk or just trying to be green and save on paper prints. This concludes the article on Microsoft’s Snipping Tool, if there are any questions feel free to call or email the helpdesk and we would be happy to assist you.

How to Screen Shots

How to save an image of what is on your screen (screenshot)

Screen Shots

On a Windows 7 Machine (CTRL + PRINT SCREEN)
To take a screen shot of the entire desktop, press the PRINT SCREEN key (often to the right of F12). This will copy an image of the desktop to your Clipboard. Open any photo or image editing software (such as Paint or PhotoShop). Pull down the EDIT menu and select the PASTE option to copy the image into the document. Edit or crop the image as necessary. Pull down the FILE menu and SAVE the image.  You can also paste this image in the same manner into a word, excel, or powerpoint document to add it to something you are working on.
On a WIndows Vista Machine (PRINT SCREEN)
To take a screen shot of the entire desktop, press the PRINT SCREEN key (often to the right of F12). This will copy the desktop to your Clipboard. Open any photo or image editing software (such as Paint or PhotoShop). Pull down the EDIT menu and select the PASTE option to copy the image into the document. Edit or crop the image as necessary. Pull down the FILE menu and SAVE the image.  You can also paste this image in the same manner into a word, excel, or powerpoint document to add it to something you are working on.
On a Windows XP Machine (CTRL + PRINT SCREEN)
To take a screen shot of the entire desktop, press the PRINT SCREEN key (often to the right of F12). This will copy an image of the desktop to your Clipboard. Open any photo or image editing software (such as Paint or PhotoShop). Pull down the EDIT menu and select the PASTE option to copy the image into the document. Edit or crop the image as necessary. Pull down the FILE menu and SAVE the image.  You can also paste this image in the same manner into a word, excel, or powerpoint document to add it to something you are working on.
On a Macintosh Machine (CMD+SHIFT+3)
To take a screen shot of the entire desktop, hold down the APPLE key (also called the command key), the SHIFT key, and the 3 key simultaneously. To take a screen shot of just a portion of the desktop, hold down the APPLE key, the SHIFT key, and the 4 key simultaneously. These keystrokes place a .png file of the screen on your desktop. Open the file in Preview or Photoshop to convert to a .jpeg that Windows machines can view.