I know that Microsoft Windows 8 is designed to be used on a tablet computer or at least a touchscreen device, but I have an actual laptop with an actual keyboard and I miss all my classic Windows keyboard shortcuts. Most frustrating: Why doesn't Alt+F4 close applications?

This may sound stupid but now that I've switched from Windows 7 to Windows 8, I can't figure out how to actually shut down my computer any more. No Start menu means no "Shutdown" option. Holy cow, what a pain. How the $#$@#$ do I shutdown my laptop??

I'm trying to get the hang of the new Microsoft Windows 8 system and am finding it tricky. I can't figure out much of anything with the removal of the Start menu, but I'll persevere. Meanwhile, how can I enable a screen saver since it appears that the default configuration is to have the screensaver disabled, which is a privacy issue here at work. Got a tip for me?

I'm getting creeped out about how well the ads on different sites track me. I search for something on Amazon and the next day there are ads for that exact product on third party sites. How do they know what I searched for? More importantly, how do I stop this?!

In the age of Google, searching has become one of the main activities and focuses for just about anyone that is connected to the Internet, via a computer, a tablet, or smartphone.

But what about searching for things on your computer system? I've been using Windows 7 (and Vista before that without any glaring problems) on my main graphics workstation/computer systems for years now. The search function built into Windows 7 in particular has been one of the joys and useful tools of my computing experience, something that I recently discovered isn't the norm.

There are apparently plenty of people that haven't had the same positive, material-discovery experience I've had for years! Join me as I detail the things that have continued to make the difference for me in the realm of Search in Windows 7 as a professional graphic designer, cartoonist, blogger and podcast host here via the online showcase of Dave's blog...

I have lots of problems with Windows 7 not finding files and other content that I know is on my drive but just doesn't show up in a search. I know people complain about the built-in search but I'm just wondering if I can force a rebuild of the search index to really give it a chance to work, or whether it's just time to go to a third party solution?

I'm a graphic designer and often have a dozen or more files that I'm working on for a client. When I need to check in with them, it's generally a pain because of the file count and they get confused by all the attachments and often don't unpack everything before calling me to say something's missing. Is there a smarter way to create a folder with my files on my Windows PC or some other archival approach I could use?

I want to be able to share with my brother some weird things going on with my Windows 7 PC and don't understand how to use PRT SCRN ("print screen"). Is there an easier way? I just want a specific warning message I see, not the window, not a video, just a screen capture.

I need to keep a set of files in sync across my laptop and desktop computer and a colleague told me that I should use Microsoft Windows Briefcase. I have no idea what that is or how to use it. What's the scoop on Briefcase?

My eyesight's going to heck and sometimes when I'm using my PC I just can't find the darn cursor or arrow and I have to move the mouse all over the place until it surfaces. Really annoying! Is there a way to make the cursor bigger in this $&#@*$()& Windows 7 system?

I don't want to change my theme, I like my background picture, and I don't want weird buttons or widgets all over my desktop. I just want to change my window frames from boring grey to pink or orange or some other cheery color. Can I do that in Windows 7 or am I stuck applying themes from Microsoft until I find one I like?

I know that Win7 shows the time on the lower right of the taskbar, but I'd like something that's more like an analog clock. I don't know if there are third party apps or what, but I just want a clock on the top right of my desktop. Is there something like that in Microsoft Windows 7?

Finally, finally, I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 and it's pretty, but the interface is a lot slower. Is there some way to turn off some of the fancy zoom, shadow and transparency effects so Win7 speeds up?

I think I have automatic updates set for my Windows PC, but it never seems to tell me there's an update, and my experience with Windows and Microsoft is that there are updates typically every week or so. Is there some way i can manually run a Windows Update to see if there's anything pending or available for my Win7 laptop?

I'm confused: It used to be that when I closed windows -- really, minimized windows -- in Windows 7 that they'd show up as a tab along the bottom in the Taskbar. Now, however, a lot of them just vanish. They're still there, the app's still running, but the Taskbar is all too often empty. What happened to my Win7 programs?

I don't know if I'm just getting old or what, but the text in my version of Microsoft Windows is tiny and I want to make it bigger. You know, the labels underneath icons, the text in dialog boxes, etc. I know there's a way to do that: how do I make the text in my Windows theme larger or bigger?

Every time I plug in my iPhone to my Toshiba PC laptop running Microsoft Windows 7, it promptly tries to import all the pictures and place copies of them into "My Pictures". It's driving me crazy. How the heck do I stop Windows trying to import my iPhone photos?

I don't know what my son did when he was installing his latest game, but when I put music CDs into my Dell PC (running Microsoft Windows 7 if it matters) the Zune Player app is launched rather than my preferred application Windows Media Player. It's frustrating and when I went to change the default programs [ed note: see Change Default Programs in Windows 7] I couldn't see anything for music CDs. How do I fix this?

My brother gave me his Apple iPod Nano because he's now just using his iPhone and it's sweet, but it's paired to his Mac. I have a Dell laptop running Windows 7, tho, and want to put my music on it. What's the easy way to reformat it and start from scratch with my iPod?

For reasons that I can't figure out, my Windows 7 laptop thinks that everything's fine with the sound system, but I can't actually hear anything when I try to play music or watch videos on YouTube. Is there some easy way to diagnose these sort of sound or audio problems on Win7?