Have a question about the book? Ask me!

Don’t have the book? Then take advantage of Amazon’s 30-50% discounts on Windows 7 For Dummies and the Windows 7 For Dummies book + DVD bundle.

My website offers more information about Windows 7 For Dummies, the Windows 7 For Dummies DVD bundle, and the differences between the book’s three different Kindle versions.

Q: I can’t find the arrow next to the Home page button mentioned on page 150 of Windows 7 For Dummies.

I want to use several Home pages, each opened with its tab along the page’s top.

What do I do?

A: Microsoft released a new version of Internet Explorer through Windows Update, which replaced Internet Explorer 8 described in Windows 7 For Dummies.

Some people love the new browser; if you don’t care for it, it’s easy enough to return to Internet Explorer 8.

But love it or hate it, Internet Explorer 9 offers a slightly different way to change your Home page — the page that first appears when you load Internet Explorer.

In fact, Internet Explorer offers tabbed browsing, shown in the figure above, which lets you keep several websites open simultaneously. You can jump between the sites by clicking the tabs along their top.

By adding your favorite websites as your Home pages, they’ll all be waiting for you whenever you open your browser.

To add your favorite websites as Home pages, follow these steps: Click to read more »

Q: I am new to Windows 7. I am trying to work with Skype, which uses a headset to send and receive voice messages.

Unfortunately, my headset’s microphone doesn’t seem to be working.

Before I invest in another headset, I want to be sure that my microphone is not being “muted” by a setting inside my computer.

How do I access the status of the microphone settings inside the computer?

A: Microsoft recently bought a company called Skype, which lets people talk to each other through an Internet connection rather than phone lines, saving considerable cash.

Microsoft will probably incorporate Skype into its products, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it show up inside Windows 8 later this year.

Until then, though, Windows Vista and Windows 7 offer the same ways to make sure your headset’s microphone works correctly.

To test and adjust your microphone, follow these steps: Click to read more »

Q: I tried to create a System Image on my external hard drive, but Windows came up with this message: “This drive cannot be used to store a system image because it is not formatted with NTFS.”

The hard drive already has some files. How do I format the drive to NTFS?

A: Creating a System Image on a portable drive is the best way to back up your Windows 7 computer.

Before a hard drive can be used,  though, it must be formatted, which is how computers prepare drives for incoming files.

Windows can format hard drives in several different ways, but System Images are picky: You can only store System Images on drives formatted with NTFS (New Technology File System).

Formatting a drive completely erases its contents, so you need to store your drive’s current files in a safe place. You can copy the drive’s files back to your computer, for example, to a flash drive, or burn them to a CD or DVD.

Once you’ve safely moved the files, follow these steps to format a drive using NTFS: Click to read more »

Q: A friend gave me a used Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop. It has Windows XP Professional installed.

One laptop sticker says “Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition. Product Key XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX.”

On the right side, a label says “Intel Inside.” Another sticker says “Designed for Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional/Windows Me.”

I am flummoxed. What does all this mean?

A: Whether a hand-me-down comes from a friend or a stranger, that newly acquired PC brings a nagging question: What can I do with this old thing?

Those stickers on its case provide important forensic clues, so let’s start there: Click to read more »

Q: I took photos of three different vacations in a row, and I want to import them into my computer.

How do I separate these pictures into three parts so that I can give them each a different label?

A: In a perfect world, we’d dump our camera’s photos into the computer after every photo session, labeling the incoming folder after the event, be it “Sky Diving in Indonesia” or “Backyard Bird Watching.”

Later, when your friends drop by, you can quickly find the right vacation photos.

But in the real world, many photos end up stuffed into a folder named “Stuff.”

How can you quickly isolate three separate trips from one huge pile of file names? Or what if all those sessions are still stored in your camera? Click to read more »