The Windows Registry on your computer system holds just about all of the most important information about your system, like what kind of software is installed on the system, what kind of hardware you happen to have installed, as well as your Windows settings and how you have Windows set up. If you are experiencing unexplainable crashes, system freezes and other odd behavior, you could be having registry troubles. For example, each time you install a new program on your computer, it creates a registry entry. If you uninstall that program, and then decide you want it back again later, so you install it again, you could end up with entries in the registry that confuse your computer.

For this reason it is important to keep a good, clean back up copy of your Windows Registry, preferably made at a time when your computer was running really well. If you start to experience crazy computer behavior, you can just restore your registry from that back up file, and it may solve the problems for you! We will show you two ways to restore your registry from a back up file you have previously created. One way is simple and easy, but you run the risk of messing up your machine even more if you are not careful. The other method is more involved, but more effective and safer for you.

The first method: simply go to your back up folder, highlight all of your back up files, and right click. Select copy. Then close that window, open up your C drive folder where the original system.dat and user.dat files are located, and right click. Select “paste.” When it asks if you want to overwrite the files, choose “yes.” And you are done! Just be sure that you are not removing files from the C folder or anything, or you could end up with a huge mess on your hands.

The more complicated but more effective method involves booting into Command Prompt Only mode. On start up, press F8 before the welcome screen, to get to the options list. Choose “Command Prompt Only” and when that opens, type the commands below (the ones in bold font) exactly as you see them here, in this exact sequence, to restore your registry.

cd c:\windows
attrib user.dat -h -r
attrib system.dat -h -r
cd c:\backup
copy user.dat c:\windows
copy system.dat c:\windows
copy win.ini c:\windows
copy system.ini c:\windows
cd c:\windows
attrib user.dat +h + r
attrib system.dat +h +r
Once you are done with that, you should have restored your registry correctly. Reboot the computer and see how things are doing!

There is really nothing more annoying than needing to print a document only to find your printer will not actually do its job and print. Or it will print...it just won't print properly. This is a frustrating issue that is all too common, but you can save yourself some time and some hassle by learning how to troubleshoot some common printer problems that you may encounter as a Windows Vista user yourself. There is no need to immediately scrap the printer as junk and buy a new one, or run out to the computer repair shop and have someone else do it for you. Often, the problem is simple to correct, and you can be your own IT and do it yourself, quickly and easily, and then move on with your life.

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We use sound for many things on our computers – from games to YouTube videos to listening to mp3s and everything in between – so when your sound goes out or starts to sound wrong, it is a very annoying problem that you want to correct as soon as possible. But you do not have to run your system down to the local repair shop and spend an arm and a leg having someone else fix the problem. You can be your own IT and troubleshoot the issue yourself...and fix it yourself, too! And it is a lot easier to do than you might think. Let's look at some common sound problems that Windows Vista users may encounter and how you can correct the problems if they are what you are experiencing.

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One of the more annoying things you will encounter as a computer user is needing to print a document only to find out that your printer just won't print. Or you can get the printer to print, but it won't print anything correctly. In a previous Be Your Own IT article, we covered the most common causes for printer problems – loose connections or outdated drivers – and how to fix them. But what if you have checked all of your connections and they are fine, and you have updated all of your drivers or uninstalled and then reinstalled them, but your printer STILL refuses to do what it is supposed to do?

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Internet Explorer 7 is a nice browser with a new shiny interface, tabbed browsing capabilities and other interesting bells and whistles. The problem is that Microsoft tried to push Internet Explorer 7 onto users by having it automatically download and install as part of Windows Updates. If you left your computer on at some point, with Windows Update set to install automatically, you may have come back to the desk only to discover you have a whole new browser you did not actually want. If that's the case, and you want to get rid of it, here's how to get it gone and keep it from coming back.

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You may not know this, but if you are a Windows user, you can hook a desktop or external monitor up to your laptop and use it instead of (or in tandem with) your laptop's own screen. This can come in handy, especially if you are experiencing problems with your laptop's screen. For example, if you dropped your laptop down the stairs and now, when you try to boot it, all you get is a black screen, you could hook a desktop monitor up to your laptop in order to determine if it is just a screen problem or something more. It is also convenient if your laptop's screen has definitely been broken – you can use the desktop monitor to navigate through your laptop and back up any information you need to back up, provided that nothing else was damaged in the laptop.

To do this, all you need is a properly functioning desktop monitor, your laptop, and the right kind of port on your laptop or an adapter that will give you the right kind of port – basically, one that fits the plug on the monitor's cable. And now, let's look at how to actually get the job done.

The process of hooking a desktop monitor up to a laptop computer is simple and easy. All you have to do is plug the monitor into the corresponding port on your laptop and boot up the laptop. The laptop should be able to recognize that you have another monitor plugged in. Then you can toggle from the laptop being the set primary screen over to the desktop monitor by pushing one of the function keys on your keyboard. The exact key can vary depending on the make and model of your particular laptop, but it should show you a little picture of a monitor on it. If you do not see anything like that, check your user manual to determine what the right key is, or get online somehow and look it up (hopefully you have Internet access on a computer somewhere else that DOES have a functioning screen!).

Once you hit that function key, the desktop monitor should kick in and start displaying. And now you have a functioning display! If it does not work, though, it may be that the laptop has another problem going on that is not related to the screen. This process can also be used if you just want to view things with your laptop at a different resolution or on a bigger screen, but all in all, it is a very handy trick to learn.

We all spend a lot of time worrying about the speed of our computer systems – too slow, not fast enough, how can I make it faster? You might figure that if you could just get your computer to run faster, then you could get your work done faster. And while that is certainly true, it is not all up to the computer itself to be a speed demon on its own. There are some tricks you can learn that make navigating through Windows much faster, so you can be a speed demon just like your computer.

A lot of people type with the hunt and peck method. That is fine, though for true quick computer use, you should have some decent typing skills under your belt. The following tips and tricks will still work if you have not taken Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing since the 3rd grade or so, but the faster your typing skills, the faster these will make you, in general, when you are navigating your way through the Windows jungle.

The way to make your work go faster is to learn your way around your keyboard. Keyboard shortcuts make life a lot easier once you get the hang of them. These are also sometimes called hotkeys. They are basically a set of specific keystrokes you make to trigger a specific action or operation in your operating system or programs and applications. Most keyboard short cuts and hotkeys involve the Control button (there are two on your keyboard, down on either side of the space bar, and they are labeled Ctrl) and the Alternative button (also two of these on your keyboard, located on either side of the space bar, and they are labeled Alt). The shift button is also used frequently. Windows XP and Vista have quite a few useful keyboard short cuts that you will find make your life a lot easier. Some you may already be familiar with, but there are plenty of really useful ones that you may not have heard of or used before, too.

Here's a quick guide:

Ctrl + Alt + Del – Opens the Task Manager
Ctrl + C – Copies selected text or object
Ctrl + V – Pastes copied selection
Ctrl + A – Selects everything in the active window
Alt – Activates the menu bar in the active window
Alt + Tab – Lets you toggle through open programs and windows
Ctrl + N – Opens a new document in the current program
Ctrl + S – Opens the save window
Alt + F4 – Closes the active window

When browsing the web:

Ctrl + B – activates the bookmarks menu
Ctrl + Enter – adds www. & .com to a url in the address bar
F5 – Reloads a page from cache
Ctrl + F5 – Reloads a page while bypassing the cache

These are just a few handy shortcuts that can make your life a lot easier, and make your work go a lot faster when you are using Windows

The monitor is an important component of your computer system, whether you are using a desktop or a laptop. Without a monitor, you can't actually see what you are doing – so your computer might run like the wind, but it won't be doing you any good. There are many things to consider when choosing a monitor for yourself, but before you get started on that, you need to know some of the technical terms and specifications associated with monitors. Being informed will help you make the best choice to suit your needs, and you will be sure to get a monitor that looks great and does what you want it to do!

There are many different kinds of monitors on the market today. Monitors will have different specs, such as various resolutions and refresh rates, that you should keep an eye out for when you are shopping for your own monitor. The default screen resolution for a Windows operating system is 640 x 480. That is a very low resolution that makes objects appear large and blocky, and it means that 640 pixels fit across the top of the screen width wise, and 480 pixels fit across the side of the screen, height wise. Most people do not run their computers at that resolution, however, because it is not very attractive. Instead, more common screen resolutions are 1024 x 768 or 800 x 600. You can go higher, too, and set your resolution at, say, 1600 x 1200. The higher the resolution, the more pixels on the screen, so objects will be smaller, but they will also be clearer. Likewise, the higher the resolution, the more things you can fit on the screen. Running a very high resolution on a very small screen, however, may be counterproductive, as the objects may be too small to read properly, even if they are extremely sharp and clear!

The refresh rate is another thing to look for. The refresh rate refers to how fast the monitor can redraw or refresh the images that are on the screen. The fast it is able to do this, the smoother the picture will be on the screen itself. With monitors that have a low refresh rate, you may see a flickering or blinking that makes the picture much more choppy. While you can't see any graphics or pictures without the monitor, the monitor itself does not actually create or produce those graphics and pictures – that's the job of the video card. So bear in mind that you can have the best video card on the market, but if your monitor is not strong enough to handle it, the picture won't look anywhere near as great as you would like.

In a previous article here on Be Your Own IT, we talked about some of the changes Windows 7 has made to its Start menu and System Tray designs. These changes are offered in an effort to correct and improve upon some of the design flaws and features that users ran into rather frequently when they upgraded from XP to Windows Vista. While it still remains to be seen whether or not these changes actually are beneficial in actual practice or use, if you are considering upgrading to Windows 7, you naturally want to have as much information about what's new and what's different so you can make an informed decision about the move!

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As much as we do not want to admit it or think about it, computers do have a habit of breaking down from time to time. From viruses to crashes, hardware problems to software problems, power outages and power surges, and everything in between, there are a lot of things that can go wrong when it comes to your computer. While your local computer repair shop will naturally be able to solve the problem for you, it is going to end up costing you a bundle of cash – and time – if you have to take your computer in to the shop every time you have a problem, no matter how minor it is. But if you knew how to repair your computers yourself, then you wouldn't have to do that!

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