Shutdown Event Tracker is a tool that prompts users to record a reason why they restart or shut down the computer. This information is available for review in the event log. If a computer running Windows is connected to a domain that uses monitoring tools, you can collect this information as part of network reporting.
When Shutdown Event Tracker is enabled, users cannot shut down or restart the computer without providing a reason. If the computer is shut down or restarted unexpectedly, either as a result of power interruption or hardware failure, the user is prompted to enter a reason in Shutdown Event Tracker when the computer is started again.
This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable Shutdown Event Tracker for when users restart or shut down Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows Server 2003 and above.
System Configuration (msconfig) is a tool that can help identify problems that might prevent Windows from starting correctly.
This tutorial will show you how to download or create System Configuration (msconfig) shortcuts that open directly to the General, Boot, Services, Startup, or Tools tab in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
This tutorial will show you how to quickly view detailed information about all user accounts on your Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 PC.
The “Turn off hard disk after” power option setting lets users set to have hard disks power down after a specified time of inactivity is detected.
When you set to turn off hard disks after idle, there will be a brief delay of a few seconds when you try to access a turned off hard disk as it spins back up and is turned back on automatically as needed. Having your hard disks to be turned off after being idle can help save energy and extend a PC’s battery life.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the “Turn off hard disk after” setting under Sleep in Power Options for all users in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
The “Allow wake timers” power option setting enables or disables Windows to automatically wake your computer from sleep on a timer for scheduled tasks and other programs.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the “Allow wake timers” setting under Sleep in Power Options for all users in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
Away Mode in Windows is similar to Sleep and Hibernate Mode, it turns off the power of most equipment to save energy and can be fast woken up. Away Mode is designed to enable media PC scenarios that include background media sharing and recording. When the computer is in Away Mode, the system appears off to the user—the display is off and audio is muted. However, the PC remains in the on state and otherwise fully operational, allowing background tasks to continue.
Away Mode is designed specifically for scenarios where the user is done interacting with the computer, but the system must remain powered on to record a TV broadcast or share media files with other systems and devices. For example, the system might be providing access to Windows Media Center Extender or other consumer electronics devices and therefore must remain available even though the user is not interacting with the system at the local console. Away Mode enables a living room media PC to respond to a user’s power on-off requests in the same manner as a television or set-top box that might appear off, but actually continues working.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the “Allow Away Mode Policy” setting under Sleep in Power Options for all users in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
The When sharing media setting in Power Options will let users configure power settings for when devices and computers are playing media from your computer to either allow the computer to sleep, prevent idling to sleep, or allow the computer to enter Away Mode.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the “When sharing media” setting under Multimedia settings in Power Options for all users in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
By default, Windows 7 and 8 will attempt to prevent system standby when connected to a remote share or file. This would be to prevent any ongoing file transfers over the network from failing due to the system unexpectedly entering standby. However, there may be many cases where the system is connected to a remote share and it is okay to enter standby.
The “Allow sleep with Remote Opens” power option setting lets you turn on or off to allow your machine to go to sleep when files opened remotely have not been written to.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the “Allow sleep with Remote Opens” setting under Sleep in Power Options for all users in Windows 7 and Windows 8.
This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the ability to drag windows while they are maximized in only your user account in Windows 7, 8, and 8.1.
By default, “Browse For Folders” type dialog boxes open centered on your display screen.
If you manually drag the borders of a “Browse For Folders” type dialog box to resize it to be larger, then the next time you open one of these type of dialog boxes, it may be cut off at the bottom if you made it to large.
This tutorial will reset the size of your cut off Browse For Folders, Copy Items (Copy To Folder), and Move Items (Move To Folder) dialog boxes back to the default size in Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1.
When you install a new printer, Windows usually names it after the manufacturer or model by default.
If you have more than one printer, you can rename them to say help identify each printer by what it does or where it’s located. For example, “Brink Printer” instead of “Samsung CLX-3170 Series”.
This tutorial will show you how to rename a local and shared printer to what you like in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1.
This tutorial will show you how to add “Kill Not Responding Tasks” to the desktop context menu of all users in Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1.
The “Kill Not Responding Tasks” desktop context menu item will allow users to be able to quickly kill any “not responding” task processes all at once.
The Local Group Policy Editor is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that provides a single user interface through which all the Computer Configuration and User Configuration settings of Local Group Policy objects can be managed for your computer.
This tutorial will show you how to back up local group policy (GPO) settings in Windows, and restore to the same or any Windows computer.
Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) enables IT administrators to remotely manage roles and features in Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 from a computer that is running Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.
There are many different types of Bluetooth enabled devices you can add to your PC, such as mobile phones, wireless headsets, and wireless mouse devices and keyboards.
You can use Bluetooth technology to transfer files wirelessly between your computer and a Bluetooth device, or between your computer and another Bluetooth enabled computer.
This tutorial will show you how to create or download a “Bluetooth File Transfer” wizard shortcut in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
You can use the Shared Folders Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in to centrally manage file shares on a computer. Shared Folders enables you to create file shares and set permissions, as well as view and manage open files and users connected to file shares on the computer.
This tutorial will show you how to download or create an “Shared Folders” MMC shortcut in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
If you have a laptop or a PC with a wireless network adapter, you can see a list of available wireless networks in your area, and then connect to one of those networks. The wireless networks will only appear if your PC has a wireless network adapter installed, the adapter is turned on, and the wireless access point is in range.
If you have a lot of wireless access points within your area, then you could have a lot of SSIDs (network names) in your available wireless networks list.
A wireless filter will allow you to be able to add or remove the SSIDs (network names) you want from showing in your list of available Wi-Fi networks.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove wireless networks from the wireless allowed or blocked filter list for all users in Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1
Windows Phone 8.1 comes included with a new Project my Screen feature that allows you to be able to project the screen of your phone to a Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 PC screen while the phone is connected to the PC using a USB cable.
Whatever you do on the phone will show on the PC screen. You will also be able to use your PC’s mouse and touch screen to operate the phone in the Project My Screen App desktop window.
This tutorial will show you how to project your Windows Phone 8.1 screen to a Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 PC using the “Project My Screen App”.
In some situations you may have to shut down and restart Windows very quickly. This would be an emergency restart. An emergency restart if basically just a forced restart without a timeout. (ex: shutdown.exe -R -T 00 -F)
An emergency restart can be helpful in circumstances when you cannot normally restart your computer, and is much better than turning off the power to your computer by performing a hard restart (reboot) which can be harmful to the computer.
This tutorial will show you how to perform an emergency restart as needed in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.
Enterprise Mode, a compatibility mode that runs on Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 8.1 Update and Windows 7 devices, lets websites render using a modified browser configuration that’s designed to avoid the common compatibility problems associated with web apps written and tested on older versions of Internet Explorer, like Internet Explorer 8 and older.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on and off Enterprise Mode for sites in Internet Explorer 11 for your account in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 Update.