8/1 Have fun playing a music video as desktop background

This is not a "must have", but it is a lot of fun. You can play a video as desktop background which is especially nice if it is a music video.

For that you need VLC. If you do not have it yet, you can install it from e.g. here ( Download VLC Media Player 1.1.2 - FileHippo.com ). And here are the few easy steps:

1. Open VLC and go to Tools > Preferences
2. Click on the icon called Video on the left (3d icon from the top)
3. Change Output (which is set to Default) to say Directx Video Output
4. Click on the Save button (important)
5. Now select the video you like to play -> Media > Open File
6. Right click on the VLC window where the video plays and go to Video > Directx Wallpaper
7. Minimize the VLC window and enjoy your new desktop.

If you want to get out of it, right click on the VLC icon in the taskbar and Close VLC. In case you later want to use VLC for "normal" operation, you have to reset the Output to Default and Save it.

3/3 Where did all my disk space go

When your system is new, the disk space disappears rapidly although you may not add a lot of files yourself.
The reason is probably an increase of your allocated shadowstorage. With each install and uninstall, Vista or Windows7 writes a shadow (restore point) of about 1GB - plus one is written each day in Vista and each week in Windows7. For that purpose Vista reserves 15% of your OS disk partition and allocates/uses it as needed. The allocation in Windows7 is variable from 3 to 15% depending on the size of your C-disk.
Find Command Prompt (in All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt), right click on it and Open as Administrator. Into the little black window type VSSADMIN LIST SHADOWSTORAGE and hit ENTER. It will show 3 numbers:
Allocated - that is the amount that it has grabbed from your OS partition at this time
Used - this is the amount currently used
Maximum - this is the ultimate amount it will allocate and use

Once you reach "maximum", it will reuse the space deleting the oldest shadows for the storage of the newest shadows. With e.g. a 200GB OS partition you should expect a maximum of 30GBs that are reserved for the system and that you cannot use. If your OS partition is larger or smaller, the shadowstorage will be accordingly (always 15% max.in Vista but variable in Windows7) But the restore points (shadows) are required the day you need to do a system restore.
The easiest way to change the shadowstorage is with this cmd command: (for the case where you want to set it to the minimum which is 300GB)
Vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=300MB

If you want to set it to e.g. 20GB, the command would look like this:
Vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=20GB

Never forget GB or MB behind the MaxSize number because then the system will assume bytes and you will get an error.
Note: In Windows7 you can also set it in System Protection, but you have to be a good scout to find it. The cmd way is faster – just paste the command into cmd and adjust the last number to your liking. You have to, of course, also adjust the drive letter if you apply it to other than C.

3/2 Who issued this error message

When you receive an error message, you can easily identify the process that issued the message. This video tutorial takes only 3 minutes. You can watch it at this site.

3/1 Create toolbars in Windows7 and Vista

For easy access and launching, many of us keep a lot of icons of programs, folders and webpages on the desktop. This not only looks ugly, it is also very confusing because they are usually not arranged by themes. In addition, those icons are often being scrambled and the user spends a lot of time rearranging them.
There is a much easier and more organized way to park those icons in toolbars. Access to the icons is just as easy and there is no limit to the amount of icons and the structural organization. If you like to know how to do that, watch this 9 minute video.

2/2 Facilities of your System

This is a 4 hour class that I developed for the local computer club. It covers the following subjects.

• The Desktop
• The Disks
• RAM and CPU
• Useful programs, other Facilities, where to go for help

I provide a 60 page PDF document with all the details covered in the class as well as all links to the facilities I refer to. Each chapter comes with a video that shows it the same way as I present it in class. The length of the videos ranges from 45 minutes to 70 minutes. The links to the videos are at the beginning of each chapter.

The PDF document can be downloaded from my Skydrive page.

2/1 Convert Video or Audio files with Format Factory

It is sometimes required to convert a video or audio file to another format - for example if you want to use it in a Power Point slideshow where you need WAV audio files or you want to play a video downloaded from the internet for which you do not have the right codec. In those cases I suggest you use Format Factory. The program is very easy to use and you can convert in three simple steps. For further detail watch this three minute video tutorial I uploaded to Vimeo.

1/15 Make a beautiful PowerPoint picture show

PowerPoint is a useful tool with which you can make very fancy presentations and slide shows. This tutorial explains how to make a slideshow where pictures fade from black+white to color. One example I made with this method, you can watch here and another example that I did not make myself is here.

These are the steps to perform:
1. Assemble the pictures you want to include into the slide show in a new, separate folder. It is useful to number (rename) them 1, 2, 3, etc.
2. Open this folder with the free Fast Stone Image Viewer (FSIV) or any other program that can resize.
3. For each picture, pick a common size (e.g. 960x720) in Edit > Resize
4. For each picture (using FSIV), go to Edit > Grayscale. File it (when you click on the next picture it will come up) as 1a, 2a, 3a, etc. Now the picture file is all set to go.
5. Open PP, go to Insert > Photo Album > Insert Pictures from File > navigate to your folder > highlight all the color pictures > Open > Insert
6. Now for each picture go to the Design tab > Background Styles (on the right) > Format background > Fill > Picture or texture fill > File > double click on the corresponding B&W picture > Close.
7. For each picture, highlight the picture in the big main window, go to Animations > top left where it says “Animate”, set to “Fade”.
8. For timing, in Animations, set Transition Speed to “Slow” and “Automatically After” to 8 -10 seconds, then “Apply to all” (important).
9. For music, in Animations open “Transition sound” > other Sound (on the bottom) > pick your music file (must be in WAV format).
Caution: DO NOT click on APPLY TO ALL after importing the sound file. That would restart the music with each slide.

Note: The WAV files are huge. Whereas your whole PP slideshow may be 3 to 4 MBs, inserting a music WAV file may add 40MBs to it. Here is the procedure explaining how to add a .wav header to an .mp3 (which is only 10% in size) to make PP believe it processes a .wav file: http://www.pptalchemy.co.uk/embed_mp3.html