How To Modify The Looks Of Windows 7 Taskbar

It is a fact that many users still do not exactly know what a taskbar is. Well, it is a horizontal bar that is located at the bottom of the desktop interface, and has many minute icons placed on it. In windows 7, the taskbar got even better, both in appearance and in functions. It comes with an option to auto hide, which makes it even better.
Every Windows user knows the relevance of the “Start” button in a Windows machine. The taskbar can be regarded as the home of the Start menu. It is not just the home of the Start tab, but also a hub of numerous other application icons. The Windows 7 taskbar is displayed on your screen with an enhanced visual effect, and is almost invisible with its transparent look. Apart from that, there are various other options that will allow a Windows 7 user to modify the appearance of the taskbar on a Windows 7 machine.
The following Windows 7 help guidelines will assist you with giving the taskbar on your Windows 7 machine a better look.

Instructions

• Go to the Start menu and click Control Panel to bring up the Control Panel window. Now select Appearance and Personalization.
• In the Appearance and Personalization window, go to the Taskbar and Start Menu option and click to open it.
• Move along the Taskbar tab and click on the Settings window of the Windows 7 taskbar. 
• You can set numerous changes to your taskbar, such as Use Small Icons, and the Taskbar Location, which will allow a user to modify the position of the taskbar placed on your desktop.
• Pick the Customize tab to modify the looks of the existing windows 7 taskbar on your Windows machine. 
• Click the Apply button and then the OK button to save and confirm the changes made to your Windows 7 machine.
• Roll down to the desktop icon and right click on it to bring on the Personalize option.
• Pick out the Window Color tab to paint out your taskbar in a new color. The color that you opt for the Windows taskbar will be applied to all the icon borders, as well as to the windows background.

If you need further assistance with modifying the looks of your Windows 7 taskbar, get in touch with the Microsoft Windows 7 help and support team.

Import Outlook Express Folders To A Different Computer

Outlook Express is part of the Microsoft Office suite and is an excellent email client application. Outlook Express became an instant hit since the first day of its release.  Besides its email managing capabilities, Outlook Express also helps users organize calendars, create global address book, and doubles as a powerful contact manager.
If you want to switch to a different computer, you can transfer the Outlook Express files and folders from your old computer to the new one without much hassle. The following Outlook Express help instructions will guide you through the process.

Instructions

• Click on the Start button located at the bottom left corner of your computer screen.
• Locate Outlook Express from the Start menu and click on it.
• This will launch the Outlook Express application. Alternatively, you can double-click on the Outlook Express desktop icon to launch the program.
• Select the option Tools from the Quick Access tool bar and then select Options.
• From under the Options sub menu, select the option Maintenance. Now select Store Folder to go to the location of the email folders. 
• Create a copy of the contents. Copy the folder contents into a USB flash device or onto a CD-ROM or floppy disk. Insert the CD or DVD disk into your system’s CD/DVD optical drive. Select the contents that you wish to copy. Select the Burn the files option to copy them. Eject the disk after copying. 
• Now return to Outlook Express. Click on the File option. From the drop down menu, select Import and then select the option Messages. 
• Select the Import Mail from an OE Store Directory option to initiate the import process. Click Next to continue with importing the files. 
• After you have copied the files, remove the USB or CD/DVD and insert it into your new computer. Now you can copy these files and folders into your new computer.
• Launch Outlook on your new computer and once again choose the Import option to import these files. Provide the folder location where you had saved the Outlook files in your new computer.

Hope you were able to import your Outlook Express folders from your old computer to the new computer easily. You can contact the Outlook Express help desk in case you have any doubts on this.

Troubleshooting Tips For DVD Playback Problems In Windows 8

A DVD or Digital Versatile Disc is an optical storage medium. It offers more of a storage capacity than the compact discs even though it is of the same size. Windows 8 users now face a problem where the presence of optical drives is not detected by the Operating system. 
This happens whether the user gets the OS installed directly, or they upgrade to it from a previous version like Windows 7. This results in the drive not appearing in either the Windows Explorer or the Device Manager.
A permanent solution for this Windows 8 issue is still not available. Meanwhile, users can try out these alternate methods to make the DVD drive work on their system. Before you begin with the procedure, remember to check the optical drive cables, if the device you have the OS loaded on is new.

Method 1

First, open the command prompt from the Start menu. This is done by going to the Start Screen and typing in CMD and pressing the key combination Ctrl + Shift + Enter simultaneously. This causes an elevated prompt to appear, and you might have to click OK to confirm access past the User Account Control.
In the prompt that has now appeared, paste the following command and then hit the Enter button. 
reg.exe add “HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetServicesatapiController0″ /f /v EnumDevice1 /t REG_DWORD /d 0×00000001
After you have pasted the above command into the prompt, reboot the system and you will find the DVD drive visible in the Computer and the Device Manager.
If you find that the above method was not successful in dealing with this Windows 8 issue, then try the next method.

Method 2

This method uses a free utility that can be downloaded and installed on the system. This software is called the CD-DVD Icon Repair.
This tool is really handy and very easy to use. It was designed primarily to run on Windows 7, but has been observed to work just fine on Windows 8 OS as well. Run the program and click the Repair CD-DVD button. Restart the computer and the DVD drives will now be visible in the Windows Explorer as well as in the Device Manager.
These are the methods used to deal with the problem of undetected DVD drives on a Windows 8-run computer system. For further queries or doubts, contact the Microsoft Support Center.

Regain Access of Your Account

The Windows Live mail commonly known as Windows Live Hotmail or just Hotmail is an email client developed by Microsoft. The email service is part of Microsoft’s Windows Live suite and is can be accessed using Apple iPhones. The email account is password protected and cannot be accessed otherwise. However, if you have forgotten your password you can access your account by answering a secret security question. This secret security question is requires of you when you initially create the account. Nevertheless, as you are less likely to use this on are regular basis, it is likely you have forgotten this as well. If that is the case do not worry as you can Hotmail help you regain access your account through some instructions.

How to access Hotmail Account
1. Open the web browser and access the Hotmail web page. There are you will see empty fields where you must type in your Hotmail email address and password. The Hotmail address must be entered in the space titled Windows Live ID.

2. Select the blue colored link underneath the empty password field that reads Forgot Your Password. Click n it to open a new page    where you can initiate the account retrieval process.

3. Now enter your Email address in the vacant space next to Windows Live ID. There will be picture with a list of letters and  numbers. Type this character set into the Character field. These characters are not case sensitive. Now select the Continue button to open another page.

4. Select the radio button, which is adjacent to the line Send password reset instructions to me in e-mail and then click on the Continue button again. This will open up another set of options on your screen.

5. When you initially set up the email account on Hotmail you were required to provide an alternative email account. So select the       radio button next to this email address and then press Continue. Now Hotmail will send a set of instruction to reset your password and secret question and answer. Now open your other account and follow the simple instructions sent to regain access of your Windows Live mail account. 

If this is not enough, go to Windows Live help to address your issues. Windows Live help provides excellent support to help you diagnose any issues with the account. Once you have accessed your account, type in a new password, which you will remember easily. Also, select the security question and its answer intelligibly so that you will not have any future issues.

Change Windows 8 Desktop Background To Personalize Your Computer

I am sure nobody would like to keep the same desktop wallpaper for a long time as it can get boring. Therefore, to keep you interested while sitting in front of the computer, you can simply personalize your computer desktop.
Instead of having some dull wallpaper, you can have something that interests you. Have some wallpaper on your computer desktop that you find attractive. Windows lets you set desired wallpapers on your computer screen through a few simple steps.
Computer wallpaper is nothing but the background image against which the desktop menus, icons and other items are displayed. You can use the wallpaper images with JPEG or GIF formats. Wallpaper is actually the term used in earlier versions of Windows operating system. From Windows XP onwards, it was changed to the term “Desktop Background”.
You can set the wallpaper image in different styles; centered, stretched or tiled. From Windows 7 onwards, you have the option to set the wallpaper to cycle through pictures from a folder at desired intervals. During Windows 8 installation, a default image is set as the desktop background. Below mentioned are tips to change the default Windows 8 desktop background image to a new one.

Instructions

• Start your Windows 8 computer and click on Desktop tile on the Start Screen to open the desktop. 
• Right-click on a blank space on your computer desktop and select Personalize from the popup menu. 
• This will bring up the Personalize window on your desktop screen. Locate the option Desktop Background at the bottom of the window and click on it. 
• Now you need to click on the Browse button to navigate to the picture folder on your computer hard disk.
• From the images, select the desired one that you wish to set as your Desktop Background. 
• If you want to cycle your wallpaper images, you need to select the option Change picture every: option and select the time interval for automatically changing your Desktop Background. You may select the time as 10 seconds, 1 minute, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours or even a day. If you want to randomize your background images, just check the Shuffle box. You may also select the picture position according to your wish.
• Click OK to apply the changes.

Just follow the above-mentioned steps to change how your Windows 8 desktop looks. During the Windows 8 installation, a folder will be created on your computer that contains a set of images that can be used as your desktop background. You can download more images from the internet and use them as the desktop background. To get such tips and tricks, go through the Windows Help menu or visit the Microsoft Support Center.

Reasons To Upgrade To Windows 8

Windows 8 Operating System gives a good advantage to those who are upgrading existing computers or buying new ones. There are many new features in the OS that improves the performance of the OS. This OS ensures optimum performance of the computer and is cheaper. Some of the salient features, which will make you opt for Windows 8 upgrade are,

Faster Startup

When comparing two computers of the same configuration, running Windows 8 and Windows 7, the computer running on Windows 8 starts up twice as fast as Windows 7. When comparing with Apple’s latest desktop OS, Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Windows 8 starts up faster. It is evident that Microsoft has put in a lot of work to improve the performance in Windows 8.

New Apps

The new Windows 8 OS gives a new world of full-screen, web-connected, touch-friendly applications to explore. These new apps can also display relevant information on the Windows Start screen tiles. This is not possible in Windows 7 OS. The new Windows store which is like the Apple’s iTunes App Store makes installing and using these apps very easy.

SkyDrive Integration

The cloud service of Microsoft has improved considerably. This has become way more than online storage. You can access files and save files to an online storage space, which can be accessed from a web browser or apps that run not only on Windows OS, but also on MAC OS, iOS Windows phone and Android.

More Secure, Less Intrusive Updates

The networking and security analyst of PC Magazine, Fahmida Rashid considers Windows 8 the most secure version of Windows till date. This is due to the secure boot and other added features of the OS. As per the words of Sebastian Anthony of Extreme Tech, Windows 8 stops a computer from loading an OS that is not signed by the publisher.

World Class Touch Input

It is said that the touch screen input of Windows 8 is superior to that of the Apple iPad. You can all the tasks in Windows 8 by swiping the screen with your fingers. This makes a tablet easy to use by holding it by the sides.
These are the five main reasons that will tempt you to go for the Windows 8 upgrade. Upgrade to Windows 8 and experience the difference.

Configure Outlook Express To Access Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox

The Outlook Web Access allows users to access their Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox from any computer using a web browser. You may use any web browser to access your Exchange server mailbox if you have an active internet connection.

Those who travel and require remote access will find Outlook Web Access really useful. With the help of Outlook Web Access, users can configure Outlook Express to retrieve email messages from the Exchange Server. The below mentioned Outlook Express Help guidelines will help you configure Outlook Express to retrieve email messages from the Exchange Server using Outlook Web Access.

Instructions for configuring Outlook with Web Access

• Close Microsoft Outlook application if it is open.
• Click the Start button and select Control Panel from the menu.
• From the Control Panel window, locate the Mail icon and double-click to open it. You have to add a new Outlook profile by clicking the Add button. You will get the option to provide a name for the newly created Outlook profile. Type a desired name into the text field of the dialog box.
• Next, you need to select the option Add a new email account and click on the Next button. Locate the list of email servers from the window and choose Microsoft Exchange Server as your mail server. Click on the Next button.
• Look for the place where you can enter the URL for the Exchange Server web access. Type the URL address there. You can see a text field labeled User Name where you need provide your Outlook account name. In order to verify whether you have entered the correct value, you may click the Check Name button.
• Now click on More Settings button. From the More Settings window, click on Security tab. Mark the checkbox for Encrypt Information.
• Now click on Connection tab. Mark the checkbox for the option labeled Connect to my Exchange mailbox using HTTP. Now click on OK button to confirm and save your settings. Close this window and click the Next button.
• Finally click on the Finish button to complete the configuration. 

You have now successfully configured your Outlook Express email client to retrieve messages from Exchange Server’s web access. It may be noted that Outlook Web Access has many versions with various feature sets.

You can go through the Outlook Express Help menu to get more information on how to configure and manage Outlook Web Access in Exchange Server.

Use Scanpst.exe To Repair Outlook Personal Storage Folder Issues

Microsoft Outlook automatically stores messages, contacts, appointments, tasks, notes, and journal entries in one of the following two locations:

• In a personal storage folder, also known as a .pst file, on your hard disk drive.
• In a mailbox that is located on the server. Your mailbox will be on a server if you use Outlook with Microsoft Exchange Server.

You can use a backup of your .pst file to restore or move your Outlook data if you experience a hardware failure or lose data unexpectedly.

Microsoft Outlook troubleshooting

In case you have problems opening the Personal storage folder file (.pst) or your Offline folder file (.ost), you can use the Outlook Inbox Repair tool to diagnose and repair the error. The Inbox Repair Tool scans only the .pst or .ost file, not your mailbox on the server running Microsoft Exchange.

Instructions

• Close Microsoft Outlook if it is open.
• Launch the Inbox Outlook Repair tool Scanpst.exe by going to drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12.
• In the scan box, enter the name of the .pst or .ost file that you want to check. Alternatively, you may click Browse to search for the file.
• If you want to specify the scan log options, click Options, and then click the option that you want.
• To begin the scanning, click Start.
• The scanning will locate the errors and once it is finished, you will be prompted to start the repair process to fix the errors.
• Inbox Repair tool will create a backup file during the repair process. If you want to change the name and location of this backup file, you can provide a desired file name and location to save the file.
• Now click Repair.
• Open Outlook by using the profile that contains the .pst file that you tried to repair.
• Now click on the Go menu and select Folder List.
• Under the Folder List, you will find the folder named Recovered Personal Folders that contains your default Outlook folders or a Lost and Found folder. Usually the recovered folders are empty, because this is a rebuilt .pst file. One problem that you may find is that the items that are missing from the Lost and Found folder cannot be repaired.
• Create a new .pst file, and drag the items in the Lost and Found folder into the new .pst file folder. When you have finished moving all the items, you can delete the Recovered Personal Folders file, including the Lost and Found folder, from your profile.

Using this Outlook repair tool, you should be able to fix the problem of your Outlook Personal Storage Folder. If this does not fix the issue, contact the Outlook Support team and get advanced assistance. 

How To Change The Administrator Password In Windows

The Windows operating system lets you add various User Accounts to your computer. This helps you grant different access permissions to different users. Users can have different computer configurations and user settings on the same computer. This feature comes handy, especially on computers, which are shared. The Administrator account on a computer has no restrictions for accessing the data and information.
It is possible to create more than one administrator account in a single computer. This feature helps you grant access to more than one administrator on the same computer. Sometimes, one might get into trouble if they forget the password of one of the administrator accounts. In such cases, you can log in to one of the other administrator accounts and change the password of the other. Following are the Windows Tech Support guidelines for resetting the administrator password in case you have forgotten it.
Instructions 

• Turn on your computer. When the login screen appears, enter the Username and Password for the user account that has Administrative rights. This is the default login option in most computers.
• Go to the Start menu located on your Windows taskbar and click on Run. This opens the Run dialog box. 
• Type control userpasswords2 into the text field and click the Ok button. This opens the User Accounts window. It contains a list of user accounts stored in your computer. You can modify the settings of these user accounts as required.
• Click the Users tab to see the list of user accounts. Choose the desired user account for which you need to change the password, and click on the Reset Password button.
• You will be prompted to enter a new password in the next dialog box. Enter a desired password in the text box labeled New Password. Enter the same password again in the confirmation text box. 
• Make sure that you enter a strong password that is also easy to remember. Try to create a password that includes a combination of letters, numbers and characters for more security.
• Click the OK button.
• Shut down your Windows computer and turn it on again. Enter the new password for the user account for which you changed the password. You should now be able to login using the new password. 

Take caution while sharing your password with unknown users or over the internet. For more assistance, contact the Windows Tech Support center.

Learn About Outlook 2013 Address Books

Microsoft Outlook lets you manage your different email tasks easily and efficiently. When it comes to email management, you will be required to keep much personal contact information and email addresses in your email application. Microsoft Outlook uses its Outlook Address Book to maintain this data.
Here in this section, we will discuss about the different Address Books being used in Outlook 2013. Microsoft Outlook 2013 uses several Address Books that are really part of the Microsoft Exchange Server. The Address Books have several separate, independent lists of names and e-mail addresses, which can be confusing. Microsoft has simplified the issue of dealing with Address Books in Outlook 2002 and later versions, but that does not help if you use Outlook on a large corporate network.

Microsoft Outlook 2013 Address Books

The Outlook Contacts list contains all kinds of personal information, whereas an Address Book focuses on just e-mail addresses. Microsoft Outlook makes use of its Address Book to deal with the nitty-gritty details of actually sending your message to people on your corporate e-mail system, especially if that system is the Microsoft Exchange Server. Here are the different Address Books that you use in Microsoft Outlook.
The Global Address list: If you are using Outlook on a corporate network, the Global Address list, which your system administrator maintains, normally has the names and e-mail addresses of everyone in your company. The Global Address list allows you to address an e-mail message to anybody in your company, without having to look up the e-mail address.
The Contacts Address Book: The Contacts Address Book is the e-mail addresses from the Contacts list. Outlook automatically populates the Contacts Address Book so you can easily add people to a message you are sending when you click the “To” button.
Additional Address Books: If you create folders for Outlook contacts, those folders also become separate Address Books. Your system administrator can create additional Address Books as well, and if you connect Outlook to services like LinkedIn, your LinkedIn contacts may appear as a separate Address Book, too.
Anyhow, you do not need to know what an Address Book is most of the time - you just type the name of the person you are e-mailing in the “To” box when you compose a message. Microsoft Outlook automatically checks the name for spelling and then pulls the corresponding email address and sends your message.
Go through the Outlook help menu, if you want to know more about the Outlook Address Book and its purposes.

Find Your Local IP Address In Windows 7

Your computer will have an IP address assigned when it joins an Ethernet network, so that the network can locate your computer easily. It allows you to communicate with other computers residing on the same network.
Majority of the computer users need not worry about their IP Address as the DHCP of their local Internet service provider does the job for them. However, for people such as system administrators, knowing the IP address is important. You can follow these Windows Tech Support guidelines to retrieve the IP address of your computer.
Instructions:

• One simple method to access your IP address is by navigating to the Windows Command Prompt interface. To open the Command Prompt, click the Start button, select All Programs and then click Accessories. Finally, select the Command Prompt option from the list.
• An alternative method to open the Command Prompt window is by clicking the Start button and then typing CMD into the Search box field found in the Start menu.
• You will receive a window with a prompt (C:\Users\username>) on your screen. Type ipconfig into the Command Prompt window and hit the Enter key, to run the command.
• You will receive a long list of information on your Command Prompt window out of which IP4 Address is your internal IP address that is used by your computer to communicate with your local network. The IP address of your computer is a numerical representation, which looks similar to 192.168.1.100. 
• So if you find it difficult to use the command line interface, you can switch to the Control Panel method. Open your Control Panel window, double click on the Network and Internet option and select the Network and Sharing Center. Then click on the Change adapter settings link located at the top left corner of the window.
• Select the type of network, which is either Wireless Network Connection or Local Area Connection by double clicking on the link.
• You will receive the Connection window on which you need to locate the Details button and click on it.
• The new window will list out the IP address information of your computer, out of which IP4 Address is your internal IP address that is used to communicate with your local network.

If you have any further doubts on this, contact the Windows tech support team and get more assistance. You can also find related topics on the Windows Help menu.

How To Reinstall Outlook 2002 On Windows XP, Vista And Windows 7

We all know that Outlook is invaluable as a desktop email client, doing away with the need to open the web browser, navigate to the mail address, and log in to it, whenever you want to check your mail.

Outlook Express is a version of Microsoft Outlook, which comes as part of a bundle of software called Microsoft Office. The components of Microsoft Office might sometimes need to be installed and reinstalled, owing to the corruption of files or program components. Outlook repair generally entails the re-installation of the program, and here is how you go about it properly.

Perform Outlook repair and reinstall in Windows XP

If you are a user of Windows XP and need to reinstall Outlook 2002, then you can try to repair the installation first. Navigate to the control panel of your computer and then double click on the Add or Remove Programs option.  Find the entry for Microsoft Outlook in the list, and then select change/remove. This will let you try a hand at repairing the previous installation of the program. If it does not work and you decide to reinstall, select the remove this program option and then put in the Microsoft Office 2002 disk to install a fresh copy of the program. Follow the instructions provided in the disk to complete the procedure successfully.

Perform Outlook repair and reinstall in Windows Vista

If you are a user of Windows Vista and need to reinstall Outlook, the installation of Office 2002's components can be repaired from the Programs and Features section. Search for the list for the Outlook entry. When you find the same, select Uninstall/Change. Click on the Change button to repair the previous installation of the component, or click on Uninstall to remove the leftover parts completely. Put in the Microsoft Office 2002 disk and install a fresh copy.

Perform Outlook repair and reinstall in Windows 7

If you use the Windows 7 operating system, you can repair the previous installation by doing the following steps. From the Start menu, access the Control Panel. Go to Programs, and then click Uninstall. From the list of installed programs displayed, find Outlook 2002 and choose either the Repair or the Uninstall option. If you choose the latter, insert the Office 2002 disk and follow the instructions on the screen, to complete the proper installation of the component.

If you have any difficulty in performing Outlook repair, or if you have any further doubts on the procedure, you can contact the Outlook support team and get more assistance.