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?

Dave, I have a new PC that is running Microsoft Windows 7 and I really like it, but I've got a problem: a few of the programs I used for data analysis in my job haven't been updated since the days of Windows XP and I can't run them on Win7 at all. Can I install Windows XP and dual boot or otherwise have the best of both worlds?

It's a problem common to all laptop users, whether you're running a Mac or a PC: how do you get the maximum battery life out of your computer so that you can minimize the hunt for a power plug and the need to tote along a power cable? In this article, I'm going to focus on best practices for people running Windows since there are so darn many of 'em.

I'm a leftie and when I use the mouse on my PC it drives me crazy because the buttons are reversed for the way I want to use them. I knew how to switch the mouse from right-handed to left-handed in WinXP but now that I'm running Windows 7, what's the trick?

Recently I've found this error message windowthat says "HpSdpAppCoreApp" cannot be found whenever I try to install certain softwares. Any idea what that might be, and what I should do about it?

i have Windows 7 and all the settings are totally different to WIndows XP and I cannot find the display settings to alter sleep time. Help!

This may seem obvious, but I'm used to "Update Windows" as an option in my Start menu and it's not there any more in Windows 7. How do I update my Windows 7 installation to ensure it stays up-to-date on patches, etc?

How do I get back the menus across the top of the screen ("File", "Edit", "View", "Favorites", etc.) that used to be displayed in Microsoft Internet Explorer?

I have installed Google Chrome and did not choose the quick launch. But now i find it nice and how do i set the quick launch (without reinstallation)?

My husband really wants to use my new Dell Windows Vista laptop, but I am afraid he'll mess up all my work files with his gaming and Web surfing. His response is "don't worry about it", but I'd be in serious trouble at work if a problem arises. Instead, I'd like to just give him his own account on my system. Can you outline for me how I can set up a new account for him in Vista? Thanks, Dave. You might just save our marriage!

I read your explanation of how to password protect individual files or folders on a Mac (see How to encrypt folders on your Mac), but is there a way to do that easily in Windows? Thanks!

I just bought a slick ASUS Eee PC netbook, model 1000HA, and want to configure it to work with both Microsoft Windows XP, which is already installed, and Ubuntu or some other flavor of Linux. How can I do that without having to reinstall WinXP?

I don't know what my daughter did, but suddenly the "My Computer" icon isn't showing up on my Windows XP computer and I don't know how to make it reappear! Without it, I can't find my files, which is a huge problem. Help!

Dear Dave, I was reading your article Security certificate expired problems? Maybe it's your PC's date and time. and I think that might be my problem. But here's my question: Could you please tell me how to find the date and time and change it?

I've been dreaming about a new computer monitor for a while, but the sad reality is that there's no way I can afford it for a while yet, so I have to make do with my smaller screen. Which means I really want to make my icons smaller under WinXP. How do I do that?

I might be the last person to the party, but I can't figure out how to easily change the background picture on my WinXP ASUS EeePC Netbook. For that matter, how can I find new pictures online that I can use as a replacement desktop image?

I have no idea what happened, but I had Microsoft Windows XP running just fine within the VMWare Fusion application, as you documented (see installing Vista in VMWare Fusion) and now it crashes without an error when I try to run it. Help! I need to get this working!

I've gotten into blogging with Movable Type (thanks to you, Dave!) and it's going well, except for one annoying thing: I can't rebuild my site. Every time I click on the button instead of getting a little window letting me do that, I just hear a weird beep sound in Microsoft Internet Explorer. What the heck?

My son was playing around with my PC and now it goes to sleep after just a few minutes if I am not using it actively. It's driving me crazy! How do I reset it to a normal setting?

I constantly lose track of where my cursor is on my new Windows laptop and it's driving me crazy. I know that there are apps I can download but I'm wondering if there's anything within Microsoft Windows XP that can help me with my vanishing cursor problem?

Kind of a strange query, but I run Parallels extensively and often find that I need to email data files I've created therein -- within Windows XP -- to my colleagues. I don't want to have any mail program running in WinXP, however, I want to just use Apple Mail. Is there an EASY way to do this?

My computer will not play dvd and I dont know if said computer has a dvd player or not.