Important: sometimes a movie needs some codecs to work correctly. I will talk about this in a future tutorial.

Before you proceed, make sure that you have…

- An empty DVD disk. (It is obvious that you have to insert the disk into your DVD burner).

- Your movie(s) (already in the PC, or in your camcorder)

Now, proceed…

1. Open windows DVD maker. To perform this step, go to the Windows start menu, click on all programs and finally click on Windows DVD maker.

2. The Windows DVD maker will be launched. Click on  Add items to add the movie that you want to create.

3. Select the movie or movies that you want to add to the DVD and click on the add button. You can add as many movies as your DVD disk can hold.

4. Change the title if you want, and click on next.

5. The Windows DVD maker will now create a standard DVD for you (check the picture below). You can customize your DVD if you wish. You can change the title, the style, the type of font etc. Once you are done customizing, click on the Burn button.

6. The Windows DVD maker will start to encode and burn your DVD. This process takes several minutes, depending of the size of your movie and the kind of PC you have. Remember to close other programs, so the operating system focuses on the creation of your DVD and finishes as soon as it can.

7. Enjoy watching your movie in your DVD player.

As you can see in the picture, this device has a USB cable, so basically you just need to connect the device to one of your computer’s USB ports, install its necessary drivers (if so), and start to play your games. If your computer has Windows 7, you do not need to install the drivers. Windows will install them for you. 

You can find similar devices from different manufactures. The prices varies depending of the manufactures. However, I highly recommend you to buy the original because you will be supported by the Microsoft team.

In case you do not have a XBOX 360 controller, you can find this device in a package (receiver + controller). Its price varies depending of the store. I actually recommend you too buy it online because its cheaper than a regular store.

Some people asked me if it is possible to connect the XBOX 360 wireless controller via Bluetooth, and the answer is NO, so do not waste your time trying to hook it up using this method.

For more detailed information about this piece of hardware, visit Microsoft Games for windows

Now, in order to recover a deleted file, it is necessary to use a special program like Recuva.

Please understand that you will not be able to recover a file that has been overwritten by the operating system. No matter the program you use, the results will be the same. The file will be totally gone.

USING RECUVA:

Recuva has a friendly interface and a wizard that will help you to recover your file. It is very simple to use, so do not hesitate to give it a shot.

1. Download,  install, and start Recuva.

2. Once you have launched it, the Recuva Wizard tool is going to appear. Click on next.

3. If you remember the kind of file you have deleted accidentally, choose it by selecting the respective option, and then, click on next.

4. If you remember the place where the file was located, choose the respective option and then, click on next .

5. Let Recuva scan your hard drive in order to find your deleted file. This process takes time, so get comfortable, and let Recuva finish scanning.

6. Once Recuva finishes scanning your hard drive, try to locate the file you are looking for. (luckily is going to be listed), and click on the recover button.

7. Voila!

Important:

- You need to have administration rights to run this program under windows vista and 7.

- If you cannot recover your file, it is because the OS has overwritten your file.

- Remember that as much as you wait to recover a file(s), lower are the possibilities to recover it/them.

2. Once you have launched Defraggler, you will see a window exactly like the picture below.

3. Select the hard drive that you want to defragment, and click on the “Analyze button”.

4. Defraggler now is analyzing your hard disk. This process is going to take a few minutes.

5. Once the analysis process is completed, check the status of fragmentation that your hard drive has. If the fragmentation is over 10%, I highly recommend you to defragment your hard drive. To defragment it, Click on the “Defrag button”.

6. Defragmenting a hard drive takes time (hours), so go ahead and do something else. and let the program finishes its work.

Once the program is done defragmenting your hard drive, just close it.

Important:

You need administration rights to run this program.

In order to put your computer to sleep, follow the next steps:

1. Click on the windows start menu.
   
2. Put the mouse pointer over the arrow next to the Shutdown button.
3. Click on the sleep option.
   

Some people ask if they will save energy by doing this. The answer is yes. Putting your pc to sleep will save energy the same as turning it off. So, do not worry, your bill is going to be the same.

Hey, but how I wake up my computer?

Move the mouse, or press any key on your keyboard.

Important:

- Do this in your home computer, not at work.

- If you want to prevent people looking your things, put a password to your account.

Some people do not know that when a hard drive is fragmented, the interaction between the operating system and the computer becomes slow. In other words, your programs or files take more time to run or to be opened.

If you feel that your computer is running slower than before, and your pc is not infected with a virus; then, that means that perhaps your hard drive needs to be defragmented.

Note that I am not assuming that your pc is running slow because of the hard drive. There are many reasons for why a computer runs slow, and a fragmented hard drive is one of them.

Now, in order to defragment your hard drive, follow the next steps:

1. Open the Disk Defragmenter. To perform this step just press the windows key + r  on your keyboard.

2. Once the run window appears, type in dfrgui and press enter or click the OK button.

3. After performing step 2, the windows Disk Defragmenter tool appears.

4. Select your hard drive, and press the Analyze disk button.

This process is going to take several minutes depending of how big your hard drive is, so relax and wait until the tool finishes its work.

We analyze the hard drive first in order to make sure that the disk needs to be defragmented. In some cases it is not necessary and defragmenting it anyway is just a waste of time.

5. Once the analysis ends, check the percentage of fragmentation that your hard drive has. In this case, I have 2% of my disk fragmented.

2% is not bad; however, if your computer has more than 10%, I highly recommend you to defragment it.

6. Select again your disk and this time, press the Defragment Disk button.

7. Now the tool is going to defragment your hard drive. This process may take several hours or even the whole day depending of how big your hard drive is and how fragmented it is.

8. Once the defragmentation is completed, close the tool and you are done.

Very Important:

Do not defragment USB flash drives or Solid State drives.

All computers eventually start to creak in their old age, but with a few quick tweaks and techniques, you can prolong their life for years – especially if you’re willing to lose a bit of modern glitz to play the games that work them the hardest. Here’s our guide to enjoying the best entertainment, without necessarily spending a fortune on new hardware.

1. Clean your PC: Like all applications, games benefit from a clean system. Before you even think about buying new hardware, do some spring cleaning. Even Windows 7 benefits from a slash-and-burn reinstall every few months to get rid of the cobwebs, memory-resident apps and other shackles that so easily accumulate over time. If games are running slower than they used to, it’s a very good first step to take.

2. Install more memory: Any major component of your PC can be a drag on your system if it isn’t powerful enough. Memory is one of the cheapest to upgrade, and the easiest – you simply pop in new sticks and you’re done. If you have 4GB RAM and a 64-bit version of Windows installed, you should be good for anything on the market. If you’re not sure what you should buy, you can visit www.crucial.com and run its System Scanner tool. This will tell you both what memory to buy, and how much you need.

3. Change your video card: If you didn’t buy a dedicated gaming PC, or your PC is a couple of years old, the graphics card in it is likely to be mediocre to terrible. Any 3D game relies on having a powerful graphics card to crunch the numbers, but buying one isn’t necessarily as easy as just plugging one in. Graphics cards can be incredibly big, and your case needs both the space and the cooling to handle that. They also need to be connected to your PC’s power supply, and if that’s not powerful enough, the card won’t work even after you fit it. Be sure to check all the specifications before ordering. Given a choice between ATI and NVidia cards, we currently recommend NVidia.

4. Update your drivers: It’s easy to forget, but the best video card in the world will struggle without the most up-to-date drivers. If you have trouble with a game, updating the drivers should always be the first step – it’ll expect you to  have everything ready for it. This can be a pain, but a necessary one.

5. Boost your CPU: If you don’t have a decent video card, there’s little that any CPU will do for you on its own. However, it still plays a key role in determining how fast your system performs. Dual-core is fine for the overwhelming majority of modern games, but quad-core is obviously better if you can afford it. You don’t realistically need anything more than that at the moment, though.

6. Forget about overclocking: It may sound like heresy, but overclocking your CPU is unlikely to make any real appreciable difference to most games – a difference, yes, but generally one that will be measured in a few extra frames. If you plan to try it anyway, make sure your cooling can stretch that far. Generally, though, overclocking has become something you do because you enjoy overclocking, and it can safely be avoided if you’re not comfortable getting your hands that dirty.

7. Clean up: On the other hand, if you don’t mind a little dirt, this is a great time to check the state of your case. If it’s full of dust and the airways are blocked, it won’t be getting cooled properly, which can seriously affect the performance of your components. To clean it out, switch the power off and use a can of compressed air to clear away the dust. This is especially important if your PC is on the floor.

8. Consider solid-state drives: With all the pieces in place, it’s time to look at your hard drive. This is the perfect time to look at a solid-state drive for both Windows and your game files. They’re smaller than regular drives, but the performance more than makes up for that. We recommend having two drives, the second one a nice, big, traditional terabyte model to hold things like videos and photos, leaving the main drive entirely for the applications it does so well. You’ll want a large one though – modern games are incredibly big, and they’re only going to get larger as the graphics improve.

9 .Cut back: If your games are still running slowly, it’s time to start switching things off. Be aware that when you do this, you’re going to notice the effect of it much more. A lack of something like antialiasing is incredibly obvious when you’re intentionally staring at a jaggy object. When the bullets are flying, you’re unlikely to notice as much. As a case in point, many console games don’t bother with it at all.

10. Check your PC’s v-sync settings: Now for the mysterious v-sync. This is vertical-synchronization, and when it’s switched off, you can encounter problems if your graphics card is churning out data faster than the monitor can display it. This gives an effect called ‘tearing’, which can make it look as though the game is stuttering or lagging when it’s actually performing above and beyond. Leave v-sync alone.

11. Turn off filtering: Anisotropic filtering is similar. It looks good, but it’s the kind of looking good that you don’t really notice in the middle of a game. It does slow down rendering, though. Switch it off for an immediate performance boost.

12. Remove reflections: Real-time reflections are one of the most intensive graphical effects around, but you won’t lose much by switching them off. We’re all so used to water being just a colored plane that you’re more likely to notice an effective reflection for being good than to chafe at its absence.

13. Tone down shadows: Shadows are a fundamental part of many games’ atmospheres, and it’s a shame to lose them. Instead, you normally get to tone them down to something easier for the game to render – for instance, switching off soft edges, or replacing the carefully rendered shadow with something simpler, like a blended circle.

14. Turn down your effects: Before you start switching things off, try turning them down. We don’t actually recommend losing all antialiasing if you can avoid it, but you probably don’t need it at 8x power. Try dropping down to just 2x and seeing if that makes any difference.

15. Tinker with your graphics card settings: If the game itself doesn’t give you any options that you can tweak to improve its performance, your graphics card might. The ATI Catalyst Control Center, for instance, offers an option called Overdrive, which lets you do basic graphics card overclocking on the fly, without you having to open up your computer’s case.

Taken from PCPlus 300 PC Tips (Pgs. 24 -25)

2. Click on Appearance and Personalization 

3. Click on Folder Options

4. Once in the Folder options window, uncheck the option: hide extensions for known files.

5. Click on apply and then on OK.

6. Close the control panel window and voila.

You should be able to see the extensions of all your files.

1. Right click on the start menu, and then, click on Properties.

2.  On the Taskbar and Start Menu properties window, click on the customize… button.

3. Make the changes that you want.

4. Once you have finished, click on the OK button

5. On the Taskbar and Start Menu properties window, click on Apply, and then, on the OK button.

6. Enjoy.

2. On the tree view pane, double click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, Current Version, Explorer, and Advance folders.

At this point you should here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advance

Check the picture to get an idea

3. On the list view pane, right click on an empty space.

4. Click on new and then click on the DWORD (32-bits) value option.

5. Name this new DWORD ExtendedUIHoverTime.

4. Double?click to open this new DWORD in order to change its values.

5. Click the “Decimal” radio button, and then change its value to the number of

milliseconds you would like the process to take. (Default is 400ms)

6. Enjoy

Important: if you have a super computer, do not change it. You will not notice the difference.