Are you tired of going to various locations on your computer to access your favorite computer tools? One minute you need Device Manager, the next you want to run the Performance Monitor, followed by checking the status of your favorite Web site such as Filetonic.com. What if I told you that your computer comes with a cool utility where you can manage all of your favorite tools in one location? No more going back and forth between Control Panel, the Start button, Windows Explorer, and your Internet web browser. Instead, use Microsoft Management Console and create your own “console” of goodies.

Microsoft Management Console is one of those obscure Windows operating system utilities that few users know about. According to the help files for Microsoft Management Console, this console hosts administrative tools for administering networks, computers, services, and other system components. Don’t worry; you don’t have to be a techie to use this tool but you will impress your friends once you’ve set up your own custom console.

First, start the Microsoft Management Console, or MMC, by entering mmc.exe into the Run dialog box found in the Start button. If you have Windows Vista, simply type mmc.exe in the Search bar and then click the program when it’s displayed.

This opens an “empty” console which is basically going to act as a container for tools that you add or “snap” in. Let’s add those tools, shall we? Go to the File menu and choose “Add or Remove Snap-ins.” This opens a list of potential snap-ins that you can add such as:

• ActiveX Control
• Device Manager
• Computer Manager
• Event Viewer
• Folder
• IP Security Monitor
• Reliability Monitor
• Link to Web Address

The snap-ins in your list will vary depending on what operating system you have. Add the snap-ins that make the most sense to you. For example, let’s say you want your own console containing your favorite performance tools. In this case, you might add Reliability and Performance, Reliability Monitor, and Disk Management. In addition, if you have a favorite Web site related to PC performance, you can add it by clicking the Link to Web Address option and then entering the URL.

For example, I made a Microsoft Management Console contains the following:

• Device Manager
• Reliability and Performance
• Filetonic.com
• Event Viewer
• Windows Media Player

Now, instead of having to go several places on my computer, I can simply launch this one console and have all of my favorite utilities and resources a click away.

Save your Microsoft Management Console with a unique name such as My Performance Tools. Once you have created and saved your custom Management Console, you need an easy way to access it. The easiest way for me is to “Pin” it to the Start menu though you may prefer a desktop shortcut. Either way, you will need to go into Windows Explorer (right-click the Start button, choose Explore) and then find your saved console. By default, the saved location is:

C:\Users\User Name\App Data\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools

After navigating to this folder, find your Management Console file and right-click it. From here, either choose Pin to Start Menu or Create Desktop Shortcut. If you create a shortcut, drag and drop it to your Desktop.

You did it! You just created your own console and filled it with your favorite tools. Remember, you can add and remove snap-ins at any time.

 A Filetonic reader asked this question today. My first reaction was to ask her to clarify whether she meant Web pages or other pages such as Microsoft Word documents, but then I realized that it didn’t matter. We all want to get the most of our screen space regardless of what program we happen to be using, don’t we? With that in mind, I’m going to share a few tips on how to view a variety of pages in full screen.

First, let’s start with viewing Web pages in full size. If you have Internet Explorer, you can simply hit the F11 key to toggle between full screen and your default window size. If you hit F11 once and like it, don’t toggle back and this setting should remain each time you open a new browser window.

The F11 trick displays Web pages in full screen mode, but you will lose the bottom Taskbar which can be annoying. Don’t worry; you can still access your other open programs without having to shrink the browser’s window. Simply use my all-time favorite key combination “ALT + Tab” to return to your previous window. If you go slowly, by clicking “ALT + Tab” and then releasing only the Tab key, you will see an on-screen display of all open windows. From there, you can Tab your way through to the exact program that you want. This is a neat little shortcut for quickly going back and forth between windows.

You can also free up screen space by removing menu bars and toolbars from view in the browser. In Internet Explorer 7.0, do this by clicking on the Tools arrow and then removing the checkmark next to Menu bar. Likewise, click the Toolbars link in this same area and remove checkmarks for various toolbars such as the Status bar, Links, and so forth.

Do you have a particular program that always opens in a small window? One of the easiest ways to change this is to go to the shortcut and make a simple change. It doesn’t matter whether the shortcut is located on the Desktop or the Start Menu. Simply right-click the program and click Properties. Next, click on the Shortcut tab and find the area that is labeled Run. By default, most shortcuts are set to open in a normal window. Change this to say, “Maximized.” The next time you launch the program using this shortcut, it will open in full screen mode.

Even then, you may want more viewing space. For example, I use Microsoft Word 2007 all day long. The View tab is useful for adjusting the document’s size. I prefer the Page Width view. In addition, you can use the Zoom tool which is located on this same tab as well as on a slider bar in the lower right portion of the screen.  

The Word 2007 “Ribbon” can also be minimized for even more screen real estate. Simply double-click on the active tab and the Ribbon is temporarily minimized. Want it back? Double-click the active tab again and all of your favorite tools are back in view. To permanently minimize the Ribbon, click the down arrow located in the Quick Launch Bar area and choose Minimize Ribbon.

No matter what you are trying to maximize, there’s usually a way to do it. Feel free to post your own tips in the comments section below. We’d love to hear more ideas!

Your computer has several different IP addresses that you can look up using different techniques.

Find Your Web IP Address

A variety of Web sites will detect your IP address and display it for you in an instant. In addition to showing you a number such as 122.171.12.244, these Web sites may also show you a map displaying your physical location or community. For example, I recently checked my IP address using such a site and was surprised to see a Google map showing my community.

The reason that an IP address can reveal your community is that Internet IP addresses are assigned to ISPs using a region-based system. By looking up the first set of numbers in your IP address, the Web site can then compare this number to database detailing ISP providers and their assignments. For example, I randomly created the IP address 122.171.22.244 for this article. I did a quick IP search and discovered that the ISP is AirTel Broadband in Bangalore, India.

While finding out IP addresses can give you a general idea of the location, these services aren’t 100% accurate. It’s not like they are going to pinpoint your exact address and reveal that information to anyone who happens to search. However, knowing that IP addresses can reveal your general location is a little alarming for those concerned about privacy.

Find your Router’s IP Address

Depending on your router, the router will likely use a default IP address. For example, Linksys routers often default to 192.168.1.1 for the IP address. You should be able to find this information in the user’s manual that came with your router. Similarly, you can visit the router’s Web site and find out by searching the various support areas.

If you aren’t having any luck or your system administrator has manually reconfigured the router’s address, you can try “pinging” it. You can “ping” your router by going to the Command Prompt (Start > Programs> Accessories) and entering in a ping -r 1command followed by a website address. For example:

C:\ping -r 1 www.microsoft.com

This will send a ping to the Microsoft Web site, return a reply, and show the “route.” The route IP address is your router’s IP address.

All Other Physical IP and MAC Addresses

Your computer has a built-in utility that will list all of the various IP addresses that your computer, network adapters, and gateways use. Simply go to Start >Run> and type in: ipconfig /all (In Windows Vista, go to Start and type ipconfig /all directly into the Search bar and then click the program that shows up in the list or launch the Command Prompt and type ipconfig /all directly into the command line.)

This will launch the utility and list all IP and MAC addresses in use on your computer.

One of my biggest pet peeves with Excel involves printing large spreadsheets. The very nature of Excel makes for wide printouts as each record stretches across the screen. While I might have a spreadsheet that looks good on my wide screen monitor, the printout is an impossible mess! Short of taping a bunch of pages together, what’s an Excel user to do?

Fortunately, you can control the way Excel prints. First, let’s take a look at the Print Area command before digging into the various print settings. You can control which areas print on a page by setting the Print Area. This helps to avoid printing blank pages or pages with information that you may need in the spreadsheet for calculation purposes but not necessarily for general viewing. To do this, highlight the text that you want to print and then go to File >Print Area > Set Print Area. In Excel 2007, highlight the text, go to the Page Layout tab, and select the Print Area icon. Choose Set Print Area.

Once the print area has been set, you will see a dotted line indicating the page boundaries. As your document evolves, you may need to clear and reset the print area. For example, you may need to add columns outside of the boundary. Keep this in mind as you edit your documents and adjust the print area as necessary. Otherwise, your new data won’t print.

While setting the print area is a good first step, it doesn’t solve the problem of wide records fitting on the page properly. While in the Page Layout area (either through File >Page Setup or the Page Layout tab depending on your version of Excel), you can further fine tune your spreadsheet. For example, you can adjust the margins, orientation, size, page breaks, and titles.

Adjusting the margins and orienting the page to landscape mode rather than portrait mode often does the trick. A few tweaks of column widths may also be needed. This option is ideal for those spreadsheets that “almost” fit across a page.

In addition, you can also scale the image down to less than 100% or even choose the option to fit the entire spreadsheet on a single page. Of course, doing so depends on the size of the spreadsheet. If you have a huge spreadsheet, shrinking it to fit on a single page will make it microscopic. A better idea is to scale it down to a legible size.

One problem when you print Excel spreadsheets on multiple pages is that you lose the column headings on the pages that follow. You can set Excel to print the title rows across the top and the columns on the left side. This helps to clarify the data on each page.

You can also set the printed page order to either print down then over or over then down.

As you adjust the print settings, use the Print Preview feature to see how your changes affect the printed document. Print Preview provides shortcuts to these various setting options as well.

Download Top 3 Registry Cleaners

• RegCure of ParetoLogic (TechJocks Pick!)
• Registry Mechanic of PCTools
• Registry Booster of Uniblue

Thankyou for your question Betty, we have posted some tips to help you uninstall programs below:

Need to remove unwanted programs?

If you want to get rid of hard-to-remove programs yourself then keep reading. If you want someone to do it for you then here is our list of remote access technicians:
http://filetonic.com/techjocks/techjock-profiles/tech-support-websites/

OK, here are the tips on how to completely get rid of programs that just wont go away.

How to manually remove programs using Microsofts Add/Remove programs tool:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314481

Computerhope recommends the tweakui program, read their suggestions here:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000568.htm

Intelliadmin is a freeware add/remove programs cleaner that is suggested as the absolute last resort (when the program is still listed under the add/remove programs display, but has actually been removed)
http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2006/05/addremove-programs-cleaner-new-version.html

If these options dont work for you, here are 3 commercial uninstaller programs to try:
Your Uninstaller - http://www.ursoftware.com/
Total Uninstall - http://www.martau.com/
Perfect Uninstaller - http://perfectuninstaller.net

RegCure - Free Download Clean your Windows Registry, Fix Windows Errors PLUS Speed up & Optimize your PC!

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Zip Files Problem Repair

Zip files are a convenient way to compress single files or a group of multiple files. Compressing files makes them smaller and, therefore, more convenient for emailing, storage, or for archiving. Zip archives, however, can become corrupt and if your zip archive folder is the only location where specific files are stored then you may lose these files with no possibility of getting them back. The following error message is the most common symptom of a corrupt zip archive or portion of a zip archive:

Cannot open file: it does not appear to be a valid archive

A Corrupt Archive

This is indicative that at least a portion of your zip file has become corrupt. This normally occurs because of a halted or incomplete action such as move, copy, or download. While it has become less common, thanks to dedicated high speed Internet connections, another common cause of this error is noise on a phone line when attempting to download a zip file. If this is the case in your instance then the easiest solution is to attempt to download the file again.

Using Repair Zip Pro

Repair My Zip Pro is a data recovery application that is designed specifically to deal with this potentially damaging situation. If attempting to download the file a second time does not remedy the situation then Repair My Zip Pro can be used to successfully and completely recover corrupt zip files. In order to combat the error message above follow these simple instructions:

Once you have downloaded, installed, and open Zip Repair Pro click the Add Zip File button at the top left of the main application window.
Browse to the zip file that you are experiencing difficulties with and click Open to include this in the list of archive files to work with.
Back on the main application screen click the Repair button to begin repairing the chosen files.
A Simple Recovery Procedure

The process is a quick and simple one that requires no technical knowledge or expertise whatsoever. The interface is intuitive and simple to pick up, requiring no mastering in order to get to grips with the power that this application has to offer.

Zip Repair Pro Conclusion

The free trial version of Zip Repair Pro enables you to recover small zip files without having to purchase a license key. For zip files under 5mb simply download and install the trial version and follow the instructions above for full recovery. However, if you need to recover a zip that is larger in size than 5mb then you will need to purchase a license to complete the recovery process.