Washington - Thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 from XP? You'll need to do a fresh installation of the operating system instead of an "in-place" upgrade. That means you won't be able to just pop in the Windows 7 installation disk and have the operating system upgrade your existing XP machine. So be sure to back up all data and critical files before you wipe out your current hard drive and perform a fresh installation of Windows 7. --------
Washington - Your internet speed is not the same on all sites. To find out exactly how fast your internet connection is overall, head over to Numion (http://www.numion.com). This website will measure your internet connection by querying over 40 different sites around the world. You might be surprised to learn that what you thought was a blazing fast internet connection is quite a bit slower when measured globally.
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Washington - Need to make a new line in Microsoft Word without starting a new paragraph? Use the keyboard shortcut Shift-Enter. This can be handy when you need several lines to retain the formatting applied to a particular paragraph, or when using a standard Enter command would put too much space in between lines. The same shortcut generally works in most text-based Windows programs.
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Washington - Looking for some old software that no-one seems to distribute any more? Before you give up, check the Internet Archive's Software Archive page (http://www.archive.org/details/software). There, you'll find rare or difficult to find software that's both free and perfectly legal. Everything from games to office applications are represented. Current open source software is available as well.
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Washington - If you have ever wondered why your Windows computer takes so long to boot up, startup applications are probably the culprit. You can find out which applications are starting up every time you turn on your machine by visiting the Startup Applications List (http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php) and following the instructions there. The page provides a handy list that identified startup programs in those cases when the only clue you have is a cryptic abbreviation or file name.
