Where is the email application in Windows 7 ?

The simple answer is “There isn’t one”. XP had ‘Outlook express’, Vista had ‘Windows Mail client’ and now Microsoft have decided that their latest OS can do without. I’m not quite sure why Microsoft would decide that the ability to email people isn’t a core requirement in a modern operating system but with their ongoing anti-trust issues I wouldn’t be surprised if they just wanted to avoid more legal headaches.

That said, Microsoft haven’t left us totally in the lurch and they do provide an email client (Windows Live Mail) as part of the ‘Windows Live Essentials’ suite. This is available as a free download and also includes :

• Windows Live call


• Windows Live messenger


• Windows Live Movie Maker


• Windows Live Photo Gallery


• Windows Live Writer

You can find this download by going to the Start Menu and typing essentials in the search field. It will then give you the option ‘Go online to get Windows Live Essentials’.

Just follow the instructions and select the items you would like to download an install.

When you launch the program you will be asked for your email account credentials. Once these have been entered just sit back and watch Live Mail go off and retrieve all your email.

So in summary, it’s slightly odd that Microsoft wouldn’t include it in the OS but at least they have made the solution simple and painless. :-)

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Windows 7 system requirements

Are  you wondering if Windows 7 will run on your existing hardware ?

Well look no further, here are Microsoft's minimum system reqirements :

- 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Additional requirements to use certain features:

- Internet access
- Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware.
- For some Windows Media Center functionality a TV tuner and additional hardware may be required
- Windows Touch and Tablet PCs require specific hardware.
- HomeGroup requires a network and PCs running Windows 7.
- DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive.
- BitLocker requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2.
- BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive.
- Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on.
- Music and sound require audio output

How to create a template in Microsoft Word 2003 and Microsoft Word 2007

There may be a time where you will need to create a document that has the same overall structure but slightly different content. It is possible to copy the document over and over and alter the content but the there is a simpler way of achieving the same result. The way to do this is to create a template within Microsoft Word.

Microsoft Word 2003

1. Open Microsoft Word 2003.
2. Create the document with all of the standard formatting and content that will need to be repeated for every document i.e. your company logo, address, reference etc.
3. When you are satisfied with the above, go to File>Save As
4. The 'Save As' dialogue window will be displayed for you to browse to the location you want to save the template.
5. Once you have chosen a location give the document a name in the 'File Name' field and then select 'Document Template' from the 'Save As Type' drop down menu below.
6. Click the 'Save' button.
7. Close the template

You will now see that your template has appeared in the location you selected earlier. If you double click this icon you will be presented with a new document that will be identical to your template. You can save this document as required without altering the original template.

Microsoft Word 2007

1. Open Microsoft Word 2007.
2. Create the document with all of the standard formatting and content that will need to be repeated for every document i.e. your company logo, address, reference etc.
3. When you are satisfied with the above, go to 'The office button' (Top left contains the office logo) and left click.
4. Select 'Save As'> Word Template
5. The 'Save As' dialogue window will be displayed for you to browse to the location you want to save the template.
6. Once you have chosen a location give the document a name in the 'File Name' field.
7. By default Micrsoft Word 2007 will show Word Template (*.dotx) in the 'Save As Type' drop down menu which can only be read by other computers that are running Microsoft Word 2007. If you require any version of Word to be able to use this template then you should select 'Word 97-2003 Template(*.dot).
8. Click the 'Save' button.
9. Close the template

You will now see that your template has appeared in the location you selected earlier. If you double click this icon you will be presented with a new document that will be identical to your template. You can save this document as required without altering the original template.

Entering the current date into a cell in Microsoft Excel

Within Excel there is a method of entering a formula that will automatically enter the current date. The formula is as follows :

=Today()

It should be noted that there is one final step to show only the date as the above will return the current date AND a time that will show as zeros. In order to only show the date in the cell. Highlight the column select format and then choose 'Date'.

As soon as this final step is complete you will be left with the current date.

Count number of occurences of word in Excel range

The example below counts the number of times the word "Computing" appears in Column B of an Excel spreadsheet.
=COUNTIF(B3:B32,"Computing")

How to show system folders that are hidden within Microsoft WindowsXP & Server

By default, system folders within Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Server will be hidden. There may be instances where you will need to access these folders, and the steps are as follows :

1. Go to 'My Computer'.
2. Select 'Tools' and then 'Folder Options' from the drop down menu.
3. Go to the 'View tab'
4. Under 'Advanced settings' untick the option that says 'Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)''.
5. Click 'Apply' and click 'OK'

The folders will now be visible.

How to show the extensions of files within Microsoft Windows XP & Server

By default, within Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Server file extensions will be hidden i.e. if you have a text file called 'Testing' it will show as that rather than 'Testing.txt'. In order to show these file extensions do the following :

1. Go to 'My Computer'.
2. Select 'Tools' and then 'Folder Options' from the drop down menu.
3. Go to the 'View tab'
4. Under 'Advanced settings' untick the option that says 'Hide extensions for known file types'.
5. Click 'Apply' and click 'OK'

How to uninstall an application or program

To uninstall an application or program that is installed on Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server, complete the following steps :

1. Go to Start menu
2. Control panel
3. Select Add or Remove programs
4.You will be shown a list of the programs that are installed on your machine. Find the application/program you wish to uninstall and select it.
5. A button titled 'Change/Remove' now be displayed.
6. Click the button and follow the 'Uninstall wizard' which will guide you through the removal process.

How to create and open the contents of a zip file

The steady increase in bandwidth over the last 10 years has brought about the ability to send larger and larger files. However, there are still limitations on most web based email systems which means that the smaller you can make a file the better. The quickest way of doing this on a Microsoft Windows based system is to compress the item to be transmitted using a 'zip file'.

Wikipedia and Austincc describe a zip file in the following way :

"The ZIP file format is a data compression and archival format. A ZIP file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce their file size, or stored as-is. A number of compression algorithms are permitted in zip files but as of 2008 only DEFLATE is widely used and supported".

and

"A file that has been compressed, or reduced in size, to save storage space and allow faster transferring across a network over the Internet. To read the information, the file must be uncompressed into its original form."

The creation of zip file is incredibly easy and can be achieved in the following way :

1. Find the file you wish to send/compress.
2. Right click it once to display the menu
3. Go to the 'Send to' option to expand the list
4. Choose the 'Compressed (zipped) folder' option
5. You will now see that a new folder has been created in the same directory with a zip showing on the icon. The file will have a .zip extension at the end of the name.

To decompress a zip file to read the contents, do the following :

1. Find the file you wish to read/open/decompress
2. Right click it once to display the menu
3. Select 'Extract all' to produce the 'Extraction Wizard'.
4. Click 'Next' and then 'Next' again to have your uncompressed folder appear in the same directory as the zip folder.
5. Click finish and your uncompressed folder will be opened up automatically for you to read the contents.

Microsoft Windows version release dates

Windows 1.0 - November 1985

Windows 2.0 - December 1987

Windows 3.0 - May 1990

Windows 3.1 - April 1992

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 - February 1994

WinNT 3.51 - June 1995

Windows 95 - August 1995

Windows NT4 - August 1996

Windows 95 OSR2 - October 1996

Windows 98 - June 1998

Windows 98SE- May 1999

Windows 2000- February 2000

Windows Me - July 2000

Windows XP - October 2001

Windows Server 2003 - 2003

Windows XP 64-bit - 2003

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs - July 2006

Windows Vista (Business Customers) - November 2006

Windows Vista (Retail Customers) - January 2007

Windows 7 - October 2009