How to create a cool slide show with Windows Movie Maker

Sharing just plain pictures can be boring sometimes. Say you like to surprise your grandparents on their anniversary by compiling all their pictures together and presenting it to them. You can spice up the presentation a bit by making a slide show with Windows Movie Maker. This means you can add animation, text comments and sounds together with the pictures. Your love one would pretty sure be teary-eyed when the memorable song you picked as background music starts playing.

To get started creating your cool slide show, Windows has a bundled program called Windows Movie Maker that will help you with this kind of project. It is available in both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Just view the video below to know how to use it.

How to save data on a CD or DVD using Windows Vista or XP

In a previous article I've explained about the different media you can use to backup your files. If you have chosen to save on a CD or DVD then below videos will help you a lot. The first shows how to save with Windows Vista while the second video will show how to save with Windows XP. Just a trivia, the process of saving on a CD or DVD is called burning so aside from saying 'I will save on a CD/DVD' you may say 'I will burn on a CD/DVD'. The reason behind this is because lasers will be used to burn the impression of the data unto the surface of the CD or DVD.

Burning data with Windows Vista

Burning data with Windows XP

Backing-up 101: Where should you back-up your files

Sometimes you may have files like pictures or videos you want to share with friends and families or you may have important business files like MS Word documents or MS Excel Sheets you want to backup.

You have actually four options to choose from in backing up your files.
1) usb flash drives
- These are the most portable because they can be as small as the fingernail on your toe but never bigger than your index finger. They are always plug and play and all you have to do is just drag and drop or copy paste the files to the flash drive. With it, you can also easily erase and replace files.

It is available in storage sizes of 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB. (Note: 1GB = 1024MB so nowadays never buy anything less than 1GB like 512MB)

2) usb hard drives
- These can be around 2.5" to 3.5" in length. The real portable small usb hard drives gets power only from the computer while the slightly bigger hard drives would require to be plugged in a power supply. However the larger usb hard drives can boast of lower cost and faster file transfer rates compared to the non-plugged in portable usb hard drives. Like the usb flash drives it is easy to add and replace content, just drag and drop or copy paste files.

They are available is incredibly higher storage size denominations compared to usb flash drives. If you want you can already have 2 Terabyte (TB) but of course it will be pricier than a usb flash drive. (Note: 1TB = 1024GB)

3) CD/DVD
- Prices of CD/DVDs are significantly cheaper compared to a usb flash drive or usb storage drive. But long run cost of storage depends on your use. If you are targeting to distribute content then this is easy if it is okay for you to giveaway CD/DVDs. If you want to share but don't want to pay anything then online storage or distribution would be better.

CDs can only hold around 700MB worth of data while a DVD is around 4.37GB. You might have heard of CD-RW or DVD-RW. RW means that the CD/DVD is special because you can continuously reuse it - erase and add files - much like a usb storage device. DVDs also have other types, if you are interested you can pursue reading from here.

4) Online
- You can actually use your Gmail account to store your data. At the moment they provide around 7GB of storage and they are continuously increasing it. Just compose a draft email and attach all the files you want to back-up here. The good thing about putting your files online is you can immediately access it anywhere on any computer with internet connection. No need to bring any usb storage or cd/dvd with you. Of course this is bad if you think about it in terms of security. So I will not suggest you use this option on company or business files which may contain sensitive information. Even if Google is a big and secure gaint in the IT world, it is still best to be vigilant about security.

If you want to distribute or show your pictures and videos then social networking websites such as Facebook will come in very handy as well. But if your contacts don't have an account there, no need to require them to join. You can always email with Gmail.

How to create a new user and add user password

In a household there might be only one computer and many users. If this is the case it makes sense to create an account for each user so they can have more flexibility in organizing their folders and customizing the look of their desktop. It would also be best to add a password to these accounts to increase privacy for each user.

The steps to create a new account and add a password is simple. The steps below would work for both XP and Vista computers. There is also a video tutorial to provide you with a visual guide.

1. Go to start
2. Go to control panel
3. Go to user accounts
4. (depends) go to user accounts again
5. Select the user you want to add a password
6. Click create a new password
7. Type the new password in (twice - once in the first box and once in the second)
8. (If you want) Add a password hint (DO NOT put the password itself!)
   
9. Click create password

How to open your computer without a password

Sometimes you might forget the password you've set for your computer. Like when you have just have come back from a refreshing two-week long vacation. If this does happen, then don't worry just yet. Try this simple trick below to open your computer again without a password.

1. when you are at the logon screen click CTRL+ALT+DEL twice
2. type username Adminsitrator and then click enter

Voila! You should now be inside your computer. All you have to do next is just edit the password of your previous account which is demonstrated in this post. If you are concerned with having an Administrator account without a password then just add a password to this account as well to secure it.

How to detect invisible contacts in Yahoo Messenger

Yahoo has a neat feature of being able to log in invisible mode. This is beneficial if you want to still be online in YM but do not want to be disturbed because it can't be helped to have friends who don't pay much attention to the busy status you put. And you don't want to ignore them for that may hurt their feelings.

Pictures below show the places where invisible mode can be activated.

However if you are the one who wants to talk to someone 'hidden' (or the avid admirer spying on their crush's online habits) then the functionality becomes a liability. It becomes a necessity during these instances to find a way to confirm if that person is indeed offline or in invisible mode. Luckily, there's a website that can help check the status of your contacts.

The website's name is statusdetect. Check out the video demonstration of how to use it.

How to use Yahoo Messenger 9.0

In one of my previous post, you learned how to install Yahoo Messenger. If you don't have the YM program yet please take a look here first.

At the moment, the latest version of Yahoo Messenger is 9.0 and it has the following features divided in three categories. Communication, Productivity and Fun & Personalization. Picture below provide in detail the different YM features when used on different media (Windows, Mac, Iphone, Web)

However let's focus on using the YM program you have installed on your computer. The video below discusses how YM 9.0 can be used for the following:

• simplified list
• chat / call
• video conferencing
• quick friend search
• send files
• share pictures
• inline media players (view videos and pictures directly on chat window)
• change skin
• forward to mobile phone