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How to backup your Outlook address book and E-mail:

Backing up address book - Create a folder on your desktop and name it something like "Address backup" or whatever, then.... click on Start>Find>Files or Folders and in the Named box type> *.wab (thats an asterisks and a period *.) and click Find Now. When you see the wab file, copy it to the folder you created.

Backing up your Mail Folders - Create a folder on your desktop (or just use the same one for all if you want) and name it " Email backup" or whatever, then click on start>find>Files or Folders and in the Named box type> *. mbx (thats an asterisks and a period *.) and click Find Now. When you see the mbx files, copy all of them to your new folder.

Then, copy all of these folders/files to a floppy disk or Zip drive and store somewhere safe.

Want to find out what hardware you have? and if your drivers are current? Select the 'Run' option in your start menu, type "HWINFO / UI" (without the quotes) and you'll see a list of your drivers and their location in the Windows Registry.

Want to clear out some junk files? These files can be safely deleted, go to 'Start' then 'Find' and search your hard drive for these extensions *.CHK (scandisk checks, ya don't need them) *.TMP (temporary files) *.GID (created when you use help files, waste of space) Remember to type in the asterisk (*) and the period (.) before the extension *. <----like that.

Do you have a Startup Disk? in case of a serious problem you need to have a 'Startup Disk' Go to Start, Settings, control panel, and double-click Add/Remove Programs, Select the Startup Disk tab, then click the Create Disk button. Now just follow instructions to create disk. When you're done be sure to label disk and store in a safe place.

Use 'ScanDisk' and 'Defrag' constantly to keep your PC in Peak Performance, located in Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools. ( I use Norton Utilities because it's much faster than windows programs)

If you want to delete multiple files in a windows application - Highlight the first file, then click on the last file while holding down the shift key and all the files in between will be highlighted. Now right click in the highlighted area and delete selected files. works great for deleting groups of E-Mail messages.

Create a 1 click shutdown shortcut - Right click on Desktop, select Create new Shortcut in the command line text that opens up type, c:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows without any space between the comma and the exit windows then click next and enter a name for your shortcut. (just copy and paste it from here to be sure it's correct)

Create a 1 click restart shortcut - Right click on Desktop, select Create new Shortcut in the command line text that opens up type, C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec without any space between the comma and the exit windows then click next and enter a name for your shortcut. (just copy and paste it from here to be sure it's correct)

Windows Keyboard Quick Desktop Access - if you have a Windows keyboard you can hide all the windows that are up and get back to your desktop quickly by holding down the Windows key and pressing the 'D' key, Repeat process to reverse.

Instant Desktop - get to your Desktop instantly without having to close or minimizing windows by going to the Start button, choose Run, type a period (.) and hit enter.

Fast Find - click on an open area in the Desktop, hit the F-3 key and the Find window will pop up.

Here's a tip to speed up the boot process - Disable the Search for new floppy disk drives by right clicking on My Computer, click Properties, click the Performance tab, click File System, click the Floppy disk tab, un-check - Search for new floppy drives each time your computer starts, click ok.

A neat way to make copies of floppy disks - Right click on the Desktop and select New, Create new shortcut, in the command line type, C:\Windows\Command\Diskcopy A: A: click next, name your shortcut and click next, select an Icon and click finish.

Use a single click to open files / folders - double click on My Computer, click View, on the General tab mark Custom, based on settings you choose, click settings and click, Single - Click to open and item.

If you have a wheel mouse you can change the font size by holding down the Ctrl key and spinning the wheel.

Redecorate your Folders - in an open folder select View, Customize this Folder, click Choose a background picture, follow the wizard to select an image for your wallpaper.

Do not delete files associated with programs before removing the program using the Add / Remove in Control Panel or the programs own Uninstall utility, or you'll end up with a mess which could cause problems in the future.

Here's the best utility I have found to backup your critical system fileswrp.zip(3.67kb) just download zip to a temp folder , unzip it and read the "readme" this is a small utility that backs up these files, C:\Windows\ user.dat, system.dat,system.ini, win.ini, protocol.ini , msdos.sys, autoexec.bat and config.sys. It's easy to use, a couple of clicks and that's it.

When moving an executable file (.EXE) to another folder you end up making a shortcut so in order to really move the file, hold down the shift key while dragging and dropping.

Want to get rid of those shortcut arrows? go to the Files / utilities page and download TweakUI98 and use it to remove them.

If your screen redraws slowly, you may be pushing your video card to hard, try turning down the color depth. Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Display or right-click the desktop and choose Properties, and if your in 32 bit color drop it to 16 bit. You won't even notice the difference except for faster redrawing of the screen.

How to delete files without having to confirm - Right click on the Recycle bin and go to Properties, then un - check the box labeled - Display Delete Confirmation Dialog Box.

Make sure your PC's speakers are set up correctly - go to Start>Settings>Control Panel>Multimedia then click on the Advanced Properties of Playback. Select your speakers setup, click Apply and Ok.

How to enter the Bios setup on various computers:

Press Delete during bootup if you have and AMI or Award bios.

Press Esc or F-1 during bootup if you have a Toshiba.

Press F-1 during bootup for a Phoenix bios.

Press F-2 during bootup if you have an NEC.

Press F-10 when the square is in the upper right hand corner during bootup if you have a Compaq.

If you have IE 5.0 or later, and want to always have the radio option availiable, go to Tools>Internet Options>Advanced tab> and put a check mark in Multimedia / Always show Internet Explorer Radio Toolbar.

Enable a tone when accidentally hitting the Caps Lock or Num Lock key - go to Control Panel>Accessibility Options>Turn on the Toggle Keys>Click ok.

Forgot where you put that download? - Go to Start>Find>Files or Folders>Click on the Date tab>Put a mark in Find all Files>look for Modified and look between todays date and Tomorrows date and then click on the Modified tab there and all files will be listed by time/date last modified first.

To stop CD's from auto playing - Hold down the Shift key for a few seconds after inserting CD .

If you use Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher, instead of typing "www.XXXXXXXXX.com" in the address bar, just type in the main (root) words like xxxxxxxx in this example, then hit CTRL + ENTER and it will add the "http://www." and ".com" to the beginning and the end of it.

Create a one click shortcut to send E-MAIL on your desktop - Right click on your desktop and select >New>Shortcut, then in the Command line type, " mailto: " (include the colon, do not include the quote marks) click the next button, name your shortcut and your done.

Find out when the web page you are visiting was last modified - Using your Java enabled browser, type this in the address line all by itself, javascript:alert(document.lastModified) exactly like that, and a msg will pop up showing the last date the page was modified.

Here's a cool tip I just picked up - Left click on My Computer, drag and drop it on any side of your screen. Then, press the CRTL key and left click on the C drive. You should then see a cascading display of all your files and folders.

System resources running low? keep an eye on it by - Clicking on Start>Run> then type RSRCMTR, hit Enter and a green resource meter will show up on your task bar. If you always want it to show up just place the Resource Meter in your Start up folder.

Smooth out the jaggies - Make your fonts look better by right clicking on the Desktop>go to Properties>Effects and put a check mark in Smooth edges of screen fonts.