The UsefulTechnology Blog

Just released: 7 funny little viral videos for Windows Live Search. If you've not yet tried Live Search, take it for a spin and decide for yourself if it's better than your current search engine.

If you're still not sure, why not put a metasearch engine to the test to instantly compare the results of different search engines? www.dogpile.co.uk does a nice job of comparing the top results from up to 6 different search engines to help you decide which is best.

Live Search is growing on me; over the last year it has definitely improved, and seems to give the most relevant results much of the time. The best feature, by far, is the Image Search with its infinite scroll (just keep scrolling down, none of that silly clicking through to the next page) and spookily accurate refinement options (narrow your search down to just show faces, certain colours, or sizes). The scratchpad, once mastered, is mega-useful too.

Mini-tip: One thing I tend to change on my search engine options is to increase the number of results that are returned per page. This saves having to keep refreshing to a new page so often. By default most search engines return 10 results. To increase it (to 50 in my case) click the Options link on the search home page and remember to save your preferences.

I've reinstalled Windows Vista on my main home computer this week. Things had become decidedly sluggish, due in no small part to the massive amount of junk software I've tested over the last year. Having upgraded the PC from Windows XP over a year ago, I was dreading having to find suitable drivers to get everything working again. But, do you know what, it was a breeze. Yes, really. The difference between installing Windows Vista at the start of 2007 and now, midway through 2008, is extraordinary. Gone are those frustrating hours trawling through hardware manufacturers' web site; now Windows Update has everything my computer needed. Sure, I needed a lot of updates - about 57 I think - but these all installed in one go and only one reboot was needed. And I have, as you'd probably guess, a lot of gadgets attached to my PC!

To test this wasn't a one-off I wiped and reinstalled Windows Vista on one of my laptops too. Same story: the installation was fast and Windows Update took care of the rest.

As long as you make sure you back up all your important files, and approach the installation in a methodical and measured way, installing Windows Vista from scratch really isn't difficult any more.

Of course, some tips are definitely worth knowing:

• Downloading software is fastest when Internet traffic is low. So save yourself time by running your downloads late at night, or early in the morning.
• If you're offered a choice of mirror sites, select one where local time (at the mirror site) will mean that Internet traffic is low. Don't pick the mirror site nearest to you if your local Internet traffic is likely to be high as the server may be busy and your files will take longer to download.
• Check your Device Manager for any unrecognised devices. If you're unsure what anything is, reboot your computer without any peripherals attached then plug in each one in turn and monitor the changes in Device Manager.
• If you're still having trouble finding a driver for a mysterious device, try an online scanning service like http://driveragent (thanks Rusty!). This will help you identify any missing drivers and point you to a solution. Take out a paid subscription if you like, or use the information provided to find the drivers elsewhere online if you have time.

This just in from Xobni HQ:

Dear Xobni Beta User,

Today is an exciting day for Xobni. After seven months of invite-only beta, we're proud to announce that Xobni is now publicly available for anyone to download. Your feedback has been essential in helping us improve the performance and features of Xobni during this period.

If you are currently running Xobni, it will automatically update to the latest version. If you need to re-download Xobni, download it instantly here:

http://www.xobni.com/download

You can read more about Xobni's launch in today's New York Times by going here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/technology/05xobni.html

Of course we will continue to work hard to improve the Xobni experience. And we hope that you will continue to provide valuable feedback.

Please let your friends and colleagues know that a better Outlook email experience awaits them at http://www.xobni.com.

Thanks!

Matt Brezina

Cofounder

So, for all of you who were not lucky enough to secure a Beta trial, now's your chance!

The Organize drop down box in Windows Explorer (accessed via the Windows Key + E shortcut) hides a little known feature of Windows Vista. Under the Layout option you'll find the ability to switch on the Menu Bar from Windows XP plus two handy new panes: the Search Pane and the Preview Pane.

Here's what they each do:

The Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is simply the conventional drop down menu choices we had in Windows XP. I suggest you leave this switched off. If you ever need to revert to the old menus you can make them reappear at any time simply by pressing the ALT key.

The Search Pane

The Search Pane allows you to quickly narrow a search using filter buttons like E-Mail and Music or input more precise filtering details like tags and file size.

The Preview Pane

The Preview Pane shows a thumbnail preview of your selected file which can be very handy when hunting through photos and documents. If the file is multimedia you'll see a mini Windows Media Player appear allowing you to preview music and videos right there in Windows Explorer.

Note that the selections you make in the Layout option only apply to your current location. When you move to a new folder the default view will reappear. However, once you make a change in a folder, that change is persistent. So, for example, if you'd like the Preview Pane to appear when viewing your music folder, make this change once and it will reappear every time you visit that folder.

Have a fun weekend!

With the local elections upon us today here in the UK, here's a timely reminder of the nifty voting feature in Microsoft Outlook. Whenever you wish to poll your email recipients on their preferences, you can save them and yourself time by using voting buttons as follows:

1. Create your email in Microsoft Outlook
2. Tick the icon labelled Use Voting Buttons in the Options tab and choose Custom from the drop down list
3. Type in the available voting choices in the Use voting buttons box, placing a semi colon (;) between each entry. For example, voting options to match today's London Mayoral election might read Ken;Boris;Brian;Sian;Gerard;etc
4. Click Close then send your email as normal

Some important considerations: your voting email recipients must be inside an Exchange Server organisation for this to work reliably. They must also be using Outlook as their email client. If outside of an Exchange organisation, voting may still work as long as Outlook is used and your email is sent in Rich Text format only. HTML and Plain Text emails with voting choices simply will not work outside of an Exchange Server environment. You can switch your email to Rich Text mode before sending by highlighting the relevant option under the Options tab.

After sending your email inviting people to vote, you can get a quick count of their voting choices, by re-opening the original email from within the Sent Items folder. There you'll see an infobar summarising the total number of votes cast, how each recipient voted, and how many votes each choice received.

If only choosing which local councillor should receive your vote was as easy!

Did you know that you can print documents simply by dragging their file onto a printer icon? This is a great shortcut if you don't want to have to open a document before printing. Of course, to make this really convenient you need a way to quickly access your printers folder. You could maybe add a shortcut to your printer to the desktop, or pin it to the Start menu. Here's how to do these in Windows Vista:

To create a desktop shortcut in Windows Vista:

1. Click on the Start button and type Printers in the search box then press Enter
2. Click and drag your preferred printer from the Printers window onto your desktop (or just right click and choose Create Shortcut; your shortcut will automatically be created on the desktop)
3. Right-click on the new desktop icon to rename if desired

To pin this shortcut to the Start menu in Windows Vista:

1. Drag the newly created desktop icon (from step 3 above) over the Start button, wait a second for the menu to open then drag upwards to drop your shortcut at the top of the list, normally just above the Internet Explorer link

To print your documents:

1. Locate your document file in Windows Explorer and drag the icon onto your Printer shortcut icon. Windows will automatically open the file, invoke the print command, then close the file down once again.

Bonus tip: Windows Vista users who regularly print files in this way may also like to try out the Drag&Drop and Print Sidebar gadget that does exactly what its name suggests

I received a handy reminder yesterday from Diane Poremsky's excellent Outlook Tips web site that it's best not to rely on the Windows Easy Transfer (WET) tool when moving your Outlook settings to a new Windows Vista computer. In fact, using WET can sometimes cause problems including a corrupt profile.

It's far safer, and quicker in my opinion, to take a backup of your important Outlook files and manually copy them over to the new computer. Diane has provided the locations of the major Outlook files that you should copy across on this page. By working this way you'll not only be in complete control of your Outlook files, you'll also benefit from taking a backup and learning about the different support files that make Outlook work just the way you like it.

I've noticed more and more email signatures carrying a 'Think before you print' reminder. And that's a good thing, because the less we print, the less damage we do to our fragile planet. Or course, if you do want to add a reminder to people to discourage them from printing your email, I suggest you keep the type size and colours to a minimum otherwise your words could actually prove detrimental to the environment when printed! To learn more about email signature editing in Outlook, see some of my most popular previous tips here, here, and here.

And there's another simple step that many of us can take to reduce our printers' ink consumption: tell your printer to print everything in draft mode, black and white, thrifty mode or whatever your printer manufacturer calls their economy printing mode.

To do this open the Printers folder (in Windows Vista simply type 'printers' in the Start Search bar, in Windows XP locate the printer settings in Control Panel), right-click on your default printer, click Properties, then Printing Preferences. Now set your printer to run in economy/draft/thrifty mode and press OK. Next time you print, the default settings will be saving you ink and money, and shaving a few micrograms off your carbon footprint.

And on the rare occasion that you need to print something higher resolution simply change the printing preferences in the Print dialog box just before you print. As a general rule this should be the exception rather than the norm. From what I can see, the low quality setting on most modern printers is plenty good enough for general use.

One of the things I like about gadgets for Windows Vista is that you're not limited to a single instance of each gadget. So, for instance, if you'd like to see the time in more than one time zone, simply add another instance of the clock gadget and give each clock a name like this:

Or, if you like to keep track of the weather in different locations, but use a weather gadget that only allows one location, just add the gadget another time:

Plus, of course, you can move gadgets around anywhere on your Sidebar or Desktop so you can customise your world to your heart's content.

Can't find a gadget you like? Try again, there are now gazillions at the Windows Live Gallery.

Now, go forth and multiply your gadgets!

Design news: I saw this on the BBC's Have I Got New For You TV programme on Friday. But it's so hilarious, I thought I'd share it here. The new logo unveiled by the Office of Government Commerce last week has turned out to be a real cock-up. It's remarkable that for £14,000 (around US$30,000) the designer didn't even have the foresight to consider the many different ways their design might be viewed.

What the designer saw:

What everyone else saw:

Discover more disastrous logos here.

My recent tip showing how to add an audible alert every time you press the Caps Lock, Num Lock, or Scroll Lock keys has proved quite popular. But if you're still hitting those keys by mistake, or simply want to change the layout of your keyboard for the sheer pleasure of doing so, SharpKeys is a neat little tool you might like.

SharpKeys works by allowing you to remap certain buttons on your keyboard to a different key. So, for example, if you've got a new laptop and would like to swap the Delete Key with the right side Ctrl key to stop you deleting things by mistake, you can do this with ease. Just be sure to remember the changes you've made and add something to your keyboard (a sticker or a little Tipp-Ex®!) to remind you.

This also works as a great trick* to play on co-workers. Remapping a few keys can wreak havoc on an inexperienced computer user and will stump even the most experienced helpdesk operator!

SharpKeys works in Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT and Windows Server 2003. Download it from here.

* The UsefulTechnology blog does not condone acts of cruelty against novice computer users, although it has been known to laugh quite vigorously when witnessing similar tricks played on unwitting colleagues in the past.

Here's a question I'm asked extremely often: "I'm the only user of my PC. How can I avoid having to type a password every time Windows Vista starts up?"

The answer is simplicity itself. Click the Start button and in the search box type control userpasswords2, then press Enter. Enter your credentials if the User Account Control dialog appears then remove the tick against 'Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer' and click OK. Enter your password two last times, then press OK. The changes will take effect the next time you start up Windows Vista.

Be warned though: if your computer is in a public place or could be accessed by someone without your knowledge you should think carefully before removing this log on password requirement. Without a password, your computer is open to being used by anyone who can turn it on and your Internet connection and private information could be compromised.

Maybe I missed this enhancement when it first appeared, but I just discovered that Windows Vista has a neat little feature that 'automagically' heals broken shortcuts. So, if you create a shortcut to a file or program in Windows Vista, then subsequently move that file or program link, the shortcut will be automatically updated to the new location. And your shortcuts should always work! Ingenious!

BTW, you can also remove those ugly arrows from shortcuts in lots of different ways. The Shortcut Overlay Remover from the FrameworkX community, also known as FxVisor, can do this for you without your having to dive deep into the registry. To install, head to www.frameworkx.com, click on Downloads, then look for Vista Shortcut Manager in the Windows Toolbox. If you're running a 32-bit version of Windows Vista (and most people are) you need the x86 download. If you're on 64-bit version you need the x64 version.

Marketing news: UK Designer Bruce Oldfield has stepped in to add a little respectability to the uniforms worn by McDonalds staff in the UK. Gone are the garish red smocks, presumably tinted to match the acne on the faces of McDonalds' young workers. In come subtle shades of beige and brown, and even pencil skirts and scarves for female managers. I think it looks quite smart, but it would take more than a sharp suit to make me eat one of those burgers.

The revamp of all 67,000 UK staff is reported to be costing a whopping £2million. Small change to a chain like McDonalds as they continue their restaurant restyle programme. I wonder if those little star badges that give an indication of how long a member of staff has held a McJob will also get the chop? I really hope so...

More here

If you read your RSS feeds in Outlook 2007 and, let's face it, why wouldn't you, you may be pleased to learn how easy it is to share a feed with a friend.

Simply right-click on any feed entry and choose Share this Feed:

Outlook will instantly create a new email for you complete with an embedded link to the RSS feed. Simply send to your intended recipient(s) and they'll see a little link like this in the email:

Now sit back smugly as they wonder how you learned such a clever trick.

Are you a victim of an inadvertent 'Reply to All' gaffe? Don't worry, you're not alone. Every day, thousands of people unwittingly share their most intimate thoughts with complete strangers. And it's all thanks to that pesky 'Reply to All' button in Microsoft Outlook.

Thankfully, there is a cure. The NEW "UsefulTechnology Gaffe Destroyer™ (Patent-Pending)" solution works by reducing the temptation* to hit the 'Reply to All' button. Here's how it works:

1. Right-click on the Reply to All button in Microsoft Outlook and choose Customize
2. On the Commands tab, click Rearrange Commands
3. Select the Toolbar button and make sure Standard is selected in the drop down box
4. Highlight the Reply to All control and either:
   1. For basic protection: click Modify Selection, change the name to 'Reply to Everyone' and change the button image to something less appealing like . Now click Close and your standard toolbar should look a bit like this . There, that's better already.
   2. or for total protection: click Delete, then click Close.
5. Now learn the keyboard shortcuts for Reply and Reply to All:
   • Reply to mail message: CTRL + R
   • Reply to all to mail message: SHIFT + CTRL + R

Trust me, that extra little requirement to press the SHIFT key to invoke the 'Reply to All' command will completely eliminate future mistakes. By having to make a conscious decision to 'Reply to All' rather than simply clicking a button, you will regain control over your communications and permanently banish embarrassing declarations of love to your work colleagues. Give it a try. It really works!

* Willpower required. Always read the label.

Online road traffic reports are not new. Some of the sites I used include TrafficMap, AA Roadwatch, and the very beautiful KeepMoving. And for the railways the new National Rail gadget for Windows Vista is hard to beat.

But the best road traffic site for my money is http://www.highways.gov.uk/traffic. Here you can see live reports from the screens along UK motorways, check out planned roadworks, and even get a traffic forecast for a date in the future.

It's as close as you'll get to a crystal ball. Of course, the traffic on many British roads is notoriously unpredictable. Best add a couple of hour to your journey time anyway, just in case...

Here's a super time saver for Outlook. Whenever you need to go to your inbox (if you're like me that happens about 3,000 times a day) just hit:

SHIFT + CTRL + I

That's it! It works from any view in Outlook.

I wrote recently and more recently about the clever promotion that BigPockets.co.uk was running to help clear out the slow moving stock from its warehouses. When the chance came up for me to order my own Bag o' Crap (or Bag o' Crap 2 to be precise) I didn't hesitate. The mystery package arrived yesterday. Here's the moment my son and I discovered what was inside.

Video link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iSW-WLeiNKQ

Fussy copywriters like me can be sent into a rage by the smallest grammatical slip-ups. Years ago, in a previous job, my team referred to me as 'Mr Em Dash' in recognition of my obsession with transforming the many inappropriate hyphens that blighted our copy into more attractive em dashes.

To punctuate copy correctly you first need to go beyond the visible limitations of your keyboard. Here's a quick list of some useful keyboard shortcuts I regularly use. Learn these and you'll soon be transforming your words into a work of art.

... (ellipsis): Alt GR + full stop

— (em dash): Ctrl + Alt + minus symbol (on number keypad), or Alt + 0151 (on number keypad)

– (en dash): Alt + 0150

áéíóú (acute accents): AltGr + vowel

© (copyright symbol): Alt + 0169 (on number keypad)

® (registered trademark symbol): Alt + 0174 (on number keypad)

™ (trademark symbol): Alt + 0153 (on number keypad)

† (dagger): Alt + 0134 (on number keypad)

Remember, not all keyboard shortcuts work in all applications. All the above should work in Microsoft Word and Outlook, although they don't all work in Windows Live Writer. If ever you get stuck, open Character Map in Windows and look for the Alt+Number keystroke in the bottom right corner.