Windows: Exposing Your PC's Secrets

Windows 7
Jump into Jump Lists. Jump Lists allow you to quickly 'jump' to recently accessed files within your favourite programs. For example, it can take you to a frequently visited site in Internet Explorer, or replay a track in Windows Media Player.

To access them you can right-click on a program s icon to the bottom of the screen, or left-click and drag upwards. Hovering over an item in a Jump List reveals a pin icon, and you can click this to fix its position. You can also access Jump Lists from the Windows Start menu by clicking on the arrow next to programs. It may seem a little clunky to start with, but you'll soon be jumping all over the place.

Windows Vista
Sound control with the Volume Mixer. We've all been there, you're listening to your favourite tunes at a moderate volume while browsing the internet, when one of those annoying talking or singing adverts pops up and makes you jump out of you skin. Fortunately, Windows Vista's volume mixer lets you set a program's volume Left-click the speaker icon (lower right of your screen), then click 'Mixer'. Here you'll find volume sliders for each program, and you can left-click and drag them to adjust their levels. It's also handy for tracking down unknown noises - you'll see green 'spikes' from programs when they make a noise.

Windows XP
Rename lots of files
If you've got lots of photos you'll know how hard it can be to find them based on their filenames which are usually something completely unmemorable like DSCF559.jpg. However, Windows comes with a handy feature to rename many files at once. Drag over the files you'd like, or hold [Shift] and the down arrow, then right-click and select 'Rename'. Enter the name you'd like and Windows will rename all the files followed by a number in brackets. This also works for any files in Windows, which means you can rename a bunch of spreadsheets or text documents.