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 saw your earlier article about how to set up your Mac so that it requires a password when waking up from sleep or from the screen saver (see password required to wake Mac from sleep). Nice. Now, how can I do that with my Microsoft Windows Vista PC laptop?

I'm running on an old clunker of a PC and find that all the visual bells and whistles in Windows XP are really slowing things down. I don't need fancy window zooming or anything else, I just need the fastest computer I can create. How do I turn off all these effects?

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'm having fun with Google Chrome but am wondering: how the heck do you get an update to it when there's a new version? Do you just wait until the social networks are abuzz, or does the program automatically check?

I read your earlier article about how to download Google Chrome so I did so and installed it on my Vista box. Nice! Now, any fun things you can do with it?

I have been hearing a lot of buzz in the last day or two about Google's new "Chrome" web browser application. But how do I find it, download it and try it? And what do you think about it anyway, Dave?

I am just sick of all these stupid helper apps that launch every time I start up Microsoft Windows XP!! Half of them are for hardware or utilities that I don't even use any more! How the heck do I zap 'em?

This is a simple question and I used to know the answer. In an office setting, I have many people coming in to ask questions. What is the keystroke command to darken my computer screen and/or bring up my screensaver. This would prevent some from trying to see what project I'm working on--dealing with human resources, etc. I'm using Windows XP.

I know this is an old issue and I hope I'm not violating any blogging "netiquette" rules, but on the security issue you brought up on your business blog, isn't it feasible to just go into your network connection properties and unselect "File and Printer Sharing on Microsoft Networks" when you are connected to a hotel or cafe network? This should stop anyone from seeing your files, correct? Since I have a password protected Administrator and other usernames on my laptop, they shouldn't be able to browse the file system with the standard double-backslash addressing ( \\GabesLaptop\C$ ).

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?

My friend was showing me a copy of Windows XP running on his Sony PSP and I'm gr33n with envy! How do I download Winxp onto my own Sony Playstation Portable? For that matter, can I get a copy of Windows Vista for my PSP?

I'm on a customization kick and would like to pull a program out of my START menu in Microsoft Windows XP and add another one. Can you show me how to customize my Start menu, please?

Simple question, Dave: how do I change my settings on my Microsoft Windows XP computer so that I can see every file on the hard disk, not just those that are ordinarily "visible"?

I am a proud user of Windows XP. Not quite as cool as Linux, but hey, it's a family computer, and Windows is more widely used. Thus far I've only had one problem with it, my son put a password on the screensaver! Which doesn't bother me, because I know how to turn it off.

My question to you is, how do I CHANGE that password? Because when I open control panel and click the screensaver tab, it doesn't give me the option to change the password, only remove it! PLEASE HELP! I know in pst versions of Windows it was possible, but I don't even know if it can be changed in SP. So any help you could be to me would be greatly appreciated!

Hey Dave, I need to do to know how much RAM memory i have in my Microsoft Windows XP computer?

Now that I have Windows XP running within Boot Camp, I'm just curious: where in the folder hierarchy do I find my Windows Desktop? I know where it is in Mac OS X...

Now that I have Windows XP installed on my Mac via Boot Camp, I'm wondering if there's any way I can use that same partition for a virtual machine in Parallels? I have read your article about how to install WinXP in Parallels (see: How to install Windows XP on your Mac with Parallels Desktop), but I don't really want to have two 8GB Windows installations, so hopefully there's a better way?

I'm trying to install Windows XP on my new Apple MacBook Pro using Apple's Boot Camp utility, and I'm finding a very weird issue: when I start up the WinXP installation within Bootcamp, it goes through various steps then finally gets to a screen where it needs me to press Enter to proceed. Problem is, my keyboard's completely dead at that point and I can't ever proceed! How do I fix this?