Today, I just found a new way to improve my Vista user experience, by speeding up access to the items of the Control Panel using only the most. If you like what you see below, then you should keep reading, and learn how to do this on your Vista computer too...


Now, let's see how can we do this, shall we?

- First of all, right click the Start Orb, and choose Properties.

- In the Start Menu tab, click on the upper Customize button, as you can see below.


- In the window that opens, check Display as a menu, below Control Panel.


- Click OK, Apply, OK again and it's all set.

Now, you can enjoy your new settings...

No matter how advanced are going to become the pointing devices used on a computer, I don't see them beating the keyboard soon in terms of speed. Even if your expensive laser mouse has a 2000dpi resolution, an experienced keyboard shortcuts user would work at least 3 times as fast as you...but with a condition: he must remember all those keyboard shortcuts!


<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->There are a lot of shortcuts available in Firefox, but today I will try to give you 10 that should give you access to the most frequently used functions of Mozilla's browser. If I forget something important for you, feel free to remind me, because I am sure there are at least 3 dozens of shortcuts used on a regular basis by most Firefox users...

10. On the last position, I place the keyboard shortcut used to open a new browser window, Ctrl+N. I know there are tabs, but I also know some people that would rather open a new window, instead of a new tab, so there you have it!

9. I don't like to see the Downloads window every time I download a file, but sometimes I need to check the progress when downloading large files, and nothing is easier than pressing Ctrl+J, checking the current status, and then pressing Esc or Ctrl+J again to hide the Downloads window again.

8. To save the current page, simply tap Ctrl+S and choose the location, name of the file and the format to use.

7. If you have problems viewing small text on a certain page, simply press Ctrl++ to increase its size. To decrease text size, the obvious shortcut is Ctrl+-... and to restore text size, you have to use Ctrl+0.

6. To go to the address bar, you can use Alt+D or F6, so pick your favorite!

5. If you want to go to the search bar, simply use Ctrl+K, instead of reaching for the mouse. It's faster this way, don't you think?

4. To open a new tab, the keyboard shortcut to use is Ctrl+T, while Ctrl+Shift+T will open the last tab you have closed...

3. ...using the Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4 shortcuts, of course!

2. To navigate between open tabs, you can use Ctrl+1..9 (select the tab having the number used together with Ctrl), Ctrl+Tab (next tab), and Ctrl+Shift+Tab (previous tab).

1. My first shortcuts in today's top are Ctrl+F, for finding text in a page, and F5, to reload the current page.

This is it, I know I said "top 10" and we have more than 10 shortcuts here, but I am sure you won't mind. Before I go, I must repeat - if you have other shortcuts that you're using on a regular basis, please enlighten me, and you'll have my eternal gratitude!

One of the new security features in Internet Explorer 7 is the Phishing Filter, which was introduced to help you keep your private data the way it should be...private. Unfortunately, once you install Vista and put everything in place, the default settings of the web browser don't activate this feature without asking, so you must do it yourself, and this is "a must".

Since it is possible that you answered "No" when Internet Explorer started for the first time and asked you if you want to enable this feature or not, here's how to make things right...

- Start Internet Explorer by clicking the shortcut in the Quick Launch.


- Open the Tools menu, go to Phishing Filter, and then choose Turn On Automatic Website Checking.


- In the window that opens, choose the obvious option, as you can see below...


- As soon as you press the OK button, the Phishing Filter starts protecting you!

As a final hint, if you find a site that you think it's being used to impersonate another one just to get your confidential data, go to the Tools menu and use the Report This Website action from the Phishing Filter submenu to help Microsoft flag this site as a dangerous one as soon as it proves you are right.