Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Azure, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 Tutorials

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Windows 8 : Sharing and Securing with User Accounts - Picture Passwords

Windows 8 introduces a new way to log into your computer using picture passwords. Picture passwords are designed to be used with touchscreen PCs and tablets so you do not have to type in characters.

Windows 8 : Sharing and Securing with User Accounts - Creating Strong Passwords

We talk about techniques for creating, managing, and password-protecting user accounts, but before we get into the details it might be worthwhile to talk about passwords in general. Not just passwords for user accounts, but for all types of accounts you create, including online accounts.

Windows 8 : Sharing and Securing with User Accounts - Logging In and Out of User Accounts

To see the name of the user account you’re currently logged into, look at the top-right corner of the Windows 8. In Figure 1, the user account name is Robert Tidrow, but it could be any username set up on your computer. If Windows 8 came pre-installed on your computer, it might be a generic name, such as Owner or User.

Windows 8 on Mobile Devices : Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 tablets

Mobile devices have become very popular over the last few years for two main reasons — the Apple iOS and Google Android operating systems. These operating systems have made tablet devices and smart phone devices affordable, reliable, and easy to use.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Joining a Windows Domain Network, Bridging Two Network Types

A Windows 8 computer can connect or bridge two different network types through software, letting the devices on both networks communicate with each other. This can eliminate the need to buy a hardware device to connect two disparate networks (although it only works when your Windows 8 computer is turned on)

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Configuring a Peer-to-Peer Network (part 4) - Alternatives to Using a Homegroup, Wrapping Up

This completes the procedure for setting up Windows networking on one Windows 8 computer. After you have configured, connected, and—if required to—restarted each of your computers, right-click in the extreme bottom-left corner of the screen and select File Explorer.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Configuring a Peer-to-Peer Network (part 3) - Setting Up a Homegroup

Windows 7 and 8 have a networking feature called HomeGroup that can make sharing files, folders, printers, and music/video media very easy. What a homegroup does is let each user decide whether or not to share specific categories of documents, music, video, printers, and so on, or even specific folders and files.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Configuring a Peer-to-Peer Network (part 2) - Enabling and Disabling Sharing

When you connect to a new network for the first time, Windows 8 automatically disables file and printer sharing through the connection, to protect you from hackers. You can then manually enable or disable sharing on the network.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Configuring a Peer-to-Peer Network (part 1)

After your network adapters are all installed—and, if you’re using a wired network, cabled together—you need to ensure that each computer is assigned an IP address.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Installing a Wireless Network (part 3) - Getting Maximum Wireless Speed

The 2.4GHz band used by wireless gear supports 11 to 14 radio frequency channels so that you don’t have to share radio bandwidth with your neighbors. The surprising fact is that many of these channels overlap each other to a large extent—a given channel overlaps about two and a half channels on either side.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Installing a Wireless Network (part 2) - Setting Up a New Wireless Network

Firmware updates are usually issued when serious bugs have been found and fixed, so it’s definitely worth checking. Update the firmware following the manufacturer’s instructions before you start using the network because the update process sometimes blows out any settings you’ve made in the router, and you’ll have to start over as if it was new.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Installing a Wireless Network (part 1) - Wireless Network Setup Choices

If you want to use file and printer sharing on your wireless network, you must use wireless security. Otherwise, random people will be able to get at your computer.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Installing Network Wiring (part 3) - Connecting Just Two Computers, Connecting Multiple Switches

Microsoft is encouraging the use of a special USB cable for use by the Windows Easy Transfer program, for people who don’t have a network. However, you can just as easily (and much less expensively) use an Ethernet crossover cable.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Installing Network Wiring (part 2) - Wiring with Patch Cables, Installing In-Wall Wiring

If your computers are close together and you can simply run prefabricated cables between your computers and switch, you’ve got it made. Buy CAT-5 (or better) cables of the appropriate length online or at your local computer store. Just plug (click) them in, and you’re finished.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Installing Network Wiring (part 1) - General Cabling Tips

You can determine how much cable you need by measuring the distance between computers and your switch location(s). Remember to account for vertical distances, too, where cables run from the floor up to a desktop, or go up and over a partition or wall.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Installing Network Adapters

If you’re installing a new network adapter in your computer, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for installing the product for Windows 8. If there are instructions for Windows 7 or Vista, but not Windows 8, those instructions should work.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Additional Networking Functions

Besides sharing files between computers, you can do several other things with a network. In the next few sections, we outline some additional features you might want to include in your network.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Choosing a Network and Cabling System (part 3) - Phoneline and Powerline Networking

HomePNA Alliance devices send network data by transmitting radio signals over your existing telephone wiring, using a network adapter that plugs in to a telephone jack.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Choosing a Network and Cabling System (part 2) - 802.11n and 802.11g Wireless Networking

One way to build a network without switches, cables, connectors, drills, swearing, tools, or outside contractors is to go wireless. Blocks of radio frequencies in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands are reserved for close-range data communications, and standardized products from cordless telephones to computer networking devices take advantage of this.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Choosing a Network and Cabling System (part 1)

10/100BASE-T Ethernet networks use unshielded twisted-pair cabling (commonly called UTP or CAT-5 cable) run from each computer to a device called a switch or router, as shown in Figure 1.

Windows 8 : Creating a Windows Network - Planning Your Network

If your goal is simply to share printers, files, and maybe an Internet connection among just a few computers that are fairly close together, here’s a recipe for instant networking. Get the following items at your local computer store, or at an online shop such as buy.com, compusa.com, or newegg.com.

Windows 7 : Hardware and Software Compatibility (part 6) - Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode - Taking It to the Next Level: Windows XP Mode

For users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate, Microsoft provides a freely downloadable, prepackaged, and fully licensed copy of Windows XP with SP3 as a perk. Called Windows XP Mode, this feature allows you to run XP applications side by side with Windows 7 applications using Windows Virtual PC. Yeah, it really is that cool.

Windows 7 : Hardware and Software Compatibility (part 5) - Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode - Understanding Windows Virtual PC

To the operating system and applications running in a virtual environment like Windows Virtual PC, the virtual machine appears to be a real PC, with its own hardware resources and attributes. These virtualized systems have no knowledge or understanding of the host machine at all.

Windows 7 : Hardware and Software Compatibility (part 4) - Dealing with Software Incompatibility - Compatibility Mode

If you do run into an application that won't work properly in Windows 7, first try to run it within a special emulation mode called compatibility mode. This enables you to trick the application into thinking it is running on an older version of Windows.

Windows 7 : Hardware and Software Compatibility (part 3) - Understanding Windows 7 Compatibility Issues

Any discussion of PC compatibility, of course, encompasses two very different but related topics: hardware and software. In order for a given hardware device—a printer, graphics card, or whatever—to work correctly with Windows 7, it needs a working driver.

Windows 7 : Hardware and Software Compatibility (part 2) - The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor - Picking through the Results

The Upgrade Advisor tests three areas: the PC's hardware, to determine whether it meets the minimum Windows 7 requirements; the various hardware devices attached to the system, to ensure that they all have compatible drivers; and the software applications.

Windows 7 : Hardware and Software Compatibility (part 1) - The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor - Using the Upgrade Advisor

While the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is primarily designed to help users of previous Windows versions discover whether their PC can be upgraded successfully to Windows 7, it also has a secret second use: it can be run on Windows 7 and used to determine whether your PC is able to run a more capable version of Windows 7.

Windows 8 : Using the Control Panel Items (part 16) - Windows Update

Windows Update is a way to connect to a Microsoft database that has drivers, patches, security fixes, and so forth to keep your OS installation up to date. Updates and software from Microsoft for Microsoft products are free as part of its maintenance and support services.

Windows 8 : Using the Control Panel Items (part 15) - Windows Mobile Device Center

PDA and smartphone users will find that they have an extra item in the Control Panel after installing their devices—the Windows Mobile Device Center. First introduced in Vista, the Windows Mobile Device Center is a replacement for all previous versions of ActiveSync.

Windows 8 : Using the Control Panel Items (part 14) - User Accounts - Configuring an Account, Recovering Lost Passwords, Creating a User Account Password Reset Disk

Another quick way to reset your account password is to have someone who has an administrator account log on and manually replace your password. Then you can log on with the password they provide and change the password.