Let us start this tutorial by asking you a simple question. What happens when you paste , if you copy a text , and next an image?

The most recently copied item will be pasted(In this example, image). Windows clipboard has this basic problem of not storing multiple items in its clipboard. There were no major innovations done to improve the flexibility of clipboard usage. Thanks to freely available powerful utilities which always make our life simpler by simple software installation.

In this tutorial, We will explain the features of a small software extension for windows clipboard named Ditto.

First, download and install this from here.

- Once you install, upon run, you will notice a small icon in the notification area , which confirms that ditto is installed and working.

- Copy the desired files, images or the text together one by one. (control+c).

- Open the target folder, let us say if you want to paste a image to My Documents, open the same.

- Open Ditto by hotkey : Control + ` (back quote : Shift + “~ or tilde” ). The following UI shows up.

User interface of Ditto

You can see the items copied as a list. Select the required file/ image / or the text.

- Paste (Control+v).

- If you want to paste to notepad, or to paint, open those and follow the same steps.

- Right clicking on the Ditto icon in the notification area, opens up much more options.

Options in Ditto

You can always modify/ delete the entry by right clicking. You can as well see the image thumbnails so that you need not have to remember the file names of the images you copied. If you want the standard clipboard feature, you can choose the option “disconnect from clipboard“ .

Key features:  (More information on this application can be found here.)

• Easy to use interface
• Search and paste previous copy entries
• Keep multiple computer’s clipboards in sync
• Data is encrypted when sent over the network
• Accessed from tray icon or global hot key
• Select entry by double click, enter key or drag drop
• Paste into any window that excepts standard copy/paste entries
• Display thumbnail of copied images in list
• Full Unicode support(display foreign characters)
• UTF-8 support for language files(create language files in any language

When your computer makes a connection to the outside world, like your company network or the internet, that PC obtains a unique address called an IP address. This IP, or Internet Protocol, address identifies the computer on the network and allows the necessary communication to take place.

When you experience communication problems between your computer and an outside network, one of the first things you should do is check the IP address. Part of that troubleshooting process should be to release and renew the IP address. Releasing the IP address resets the connection, and renewing the address reestablishes communication with your home or company network or the internet. The results of the release and renewal process can tell you a lot about the status of communication with your computer and your network.

Windows XP

1. Click the Start button on your computer

1. Choose Run from the menu

1. Type CMD in the box and press Enter

1. Type ipconfig /release all and press Enter. Wait for the confirmation message indicating that the IP address has been released.

1. Type ipconfig /renew all and press Enter. Wait for the new IP address to appear.

Windows 7

1. Click the Start button on your computer

1. Type CMD in the Search box and press Enter

1. Type ipconfig /release all at the command prompt and press Enter. Wait until the computer releases the current IP address.

1. Type ipconfig /renew all and wait for the computer to obtain its new IP address. Check the status of your router, modem and other network equipment if the computer is unable to obtain a new address.

Microsoft released windows 8 consumer preview couple of months back. We did not get a chance to get deeper into Windows 8 system, but what is impressive in windows 8 is the style or theme by which all icons are designed. Unlike XP , Vista or 7  , Windows 8 looks different mainly in how the icons are designed, if the UIs are compared.

Microsoft deviated from the icons with texture, gradient and the glass effects. Windows 8 icons look flat. The simple looking icons are designed well, which made windows 8 UI popular.

So, we came across a software, which changes the logon and lock screens of XP, Vista and Windows 7 screens to look exactly like that of Windows 8 .

Download Link

This software is around 32MB in size, and easy to install. Once you install, you may need to restart the system. Some of the features in latest release include

• Stability increase
• New Desktop Gadget for easy access
• Settings form re-designed
• Profile picture form re-designed
• Custom Background form re-designed
• Crash fixes
• Minor bug fixes

Source Website

Screenshots:

Logon screen of windows 8 in XP Vista and 7

Background selection for windows 8 logon and lock screens

The taskbar provides shortcuts to frequently used items, allowing you to simply click on an icon and open the associated program. When you hover your mouse over an icon, you can easily see what that icon is and what it does.

Unfortunately, those descriptions can be slow to appear sometimes, and that can reduce your productivity and increase the amount of time it takes to open your programs. If you are having this problem, you can tweak Windows 7 to make those thumbnail descriptions display much more quickly. Just follow these steps to make the taskbar more useful.

Click the Start button and type regedit in the Search box. This opens the Windows Registry. Note that you should always back up the registry before you make any changes.

Navigate the registry and go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse section

Highlight the MouseHoverTime setting and double-click it.

Lower the number in the box to display the thumbnails more quickly. The default setting is 400 milliseconds, but you can choose any number you wish – 150 milliseconds is a good choice

After you are done making the change, simply click the red X to close the registry editor and see the results of your tweak.