Here’s what you need to do. Type something into any text-entry box on a web page, right-click anywhere within the box and ensure Check Spelling is ticked and Languages is set to English/United Kingdom. If not, click Add Dictionaries, and follow the prompts to download the English (British) dictionary.

That’s not too hard is it? Much easier they trying to figure out the best weight gain supplements on the market.

Unfortunately this behaviour is by design. Microsoft have designed Windows Live Messenger to recognise when it is running on Windows 7 and to behave differently in this case. There’s no option for you to change this, but you can still fool it into working the way you want. Here’s what you do:

1. Make sure all instances of Windows Live Messenger are closed
2. Find the .exe file for Windows Live Messenger. It’s called msnmsgr.exe and should be under your Program Files, Windows Live folder.
3. Right-click on the file and choose Properties
4. Click the Compatibility Tab and tick the box at the top where it says “Run this program in compatibility mode for:”
5. Choose Windows Vista from the list and click OK

What this does is that it fools Live Messenger into thinking it’s running on Windows Vista rather than Windows 7, a bit like testosterone creams may fool your body into thinking it’s not really what it is. It’s not idea and hopefully Microsoft will add an option in the future to let the program run the way it used to. In the meantime, this should work for you.

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a security feature that protects your computer from malicious software. You could turn it off in XP, but not on Vista. The best thing to do is to contact the provider of the software package you’re trying to run and see if they can help you. Here’s some more information from Microsoft’s website:

The primary benefit of DEP is to help prevent code execution from data pages. Typically, code is not executed from the default heap and the stack. Hardware-enforced DEP detects code that is running from these locations and raises an exception when execution occurs. Software-enforced DEP can help prevent malicious code from taking advantage of exception-handling mechanisms in Windows.

It is for your protection after all, much like a pair of Dansko boots protect you when stamping on rocks.

The short answer is yes, you can get it back, and it’s actually quite easy. Here’s what you do:

• Right click on your Task Bar and click Properties
• Click on the “Notification Area” tab in the popup
• Look for “Volume” under System icons and make sure this is ticked
• Click OK

Told you it was easy, way easier than anything else you may have tried (especially trying to lose belly fat). You’ll notice there are a number of other System icons in that popup. I like keeping them all on, but you may have other ideas if you want to declutter your Notification Area.

Hibernation is not always enabled in Windows Vista, but it’s easy to turn on. Left-click on the Start Menu, and in the search box, type ‘Power Option”. Click on the Power Options icon that appears so bring up a dialog box that lets you change options around power handling. Click on the Change Plan Settings link and then select Change Advanced Power Settings in the next window.

This will bring up another Power Options window, with a list of additional settings. Click the plus icon next to “Power Buttons and Lid”. This will display a further four settings: Lid close action, Power button action, Sleep button action and Start Menu power option.

Each of these lets you choose power setting both for when your laptop is plugged into the mains and when it’s running on battery. The one we want is the option for the Start Menu power button, so select Hibernate for both ‘On Battery’ and ‘Plugged In’. Now your laptop can sleep as soundly as a baby on a cradlesoft mattress.

Sometimes cameras detect when they are taking portrait images and automatically rotate the resulting image so it appears the right way up in Windows. But don’t worry if your camera doesn’t do this for you. The last thing you want is to have photos of your Gatlinburg vacations and have to turn your head sideways to view them.You can rotate your images in most photo editing programs, for example, I like using Paint.Net.

The other option is to do it right from within Vista. If you open a Windows Explorer window and navigate to your photo, you can right-click on the image and show the menu of different options you have for the file. You’ll notice that you have Rotate Clockwise or Rotate Counter-clockwise as twho options on the menu. Clicking on these will rotate the photo for you.

This is pretty easy to do though it’s slightly different in Windows XP as in Windows Vista. Here’s how you can do this:

• Windows XP: Right-click on an empty part of the Taskbar and select Properties from the menu that appears. Left-click on the Taskbar tab if it’s not already displayed.

• Vista: Click on the Notification Area.

Click the option Hide Inactive icons. This will reduce the number of icons in the Notification Area and return the small arrow to display them all.

What Windows thinks should be on display will not always match what you do, and so it is possible to mark certain icons to always be on display. Click on the Customise button next to the Hide inactive icons options. A list appears with all the recent icons that has been displayed. Click on an icon to show a dropdown menu with three options: Hide when inactive, Always Hide and Always Show. Click on OK twice when youa re happy with the settings to save them.

See, I told you it’s easy; easier them moving your outdoor furniture around to find the best way to lay them out huh?

I got this question for a friend of mine who was typing his CV to send to apply for some sales manager jobs. He’s still looking, but here is some information about the problem and how to solve it.

This is a common problem with Windows when it hasn’t been set up properly. It’s not a physical problem with the keyboard, so it’s easy to fix. Windows thinks you’re using an American keyboard which uses Shift-2 for @ and so on. When Windows is installed it assumes that an American keyboard is in use, and unless this option is changed you get the symptoms you have described.

Here’s how you can fix this:

• In Windows XP: Click Start, Settings and open your Control Panel. Find and double-click the Regional and Language Options icon. In the first tab, select English (United Kingdom) from the drop-down menu if it’s not already selected. Click the Advanced tab and do the same. Then click the Languages tab and click the Details button. Click Add and choose English (United Kingdom) from the “Input Language” list. Now, from the “Default input language” dropdown list at the top, select eh UK option, and click OK. Follow any prompts that appear. Click OK to close the dialogue box.
• In Vista: Click Start then Control Panel, and select the Regional and Langauge Options icon by double-clicking on it. Click on the Keyboards and Languages tab in the box that appears, then click the button marked “Change Keyboards”. Now you can follow the instructions for Windows XP by clicking the Add button and adding English (United Kingdom) from the list.

It’s easy to do once you know how.

Unfortunately once you have Vista installed on your machine you cannot install Windows XP and easily set it up to dual boot. If you have Windows XP installed first, it’s relatively easy to install Vista as a dual-boot partition, but if you try to install Windows XP now, it will overwrite your Vista installation.

One option you might want to consider is running Windows XP in a virtual partition. You can download software like Microsoft Virtual PC to set up a virtual machine which can run Windows XP for you in a window.

Hope this helps.

Vista comes in a number of different “Editions” some of which have the ability to play DVDs and some which don’t. Vista Home Premium and Ultimate can play DVDs without any extra software, but Vista Basic cannot. To play DVDs you’ll need to get a decoding program which can do this for you. Here are some options:

• Roxio DVD Decoder: will set you back £10
• Cyberlink PowerDVD Decoder: costs around $15
• Upgrade Vista to a more comprehensive version.

That’s all I can find out at the moment. Anyone have any free DVD decoders that will work in this scenario?