(This is the first of a series of posts covering information taken from my latest book, Upgrading and Fixing Computers Do-It-Yourself For Dummies.)

Windows 7’s Backup and Restore program lets you create a “System Image,” as well as a regular backup. Different from a regular backup, System Image contains everything on your computer’s C drive: your activated copy of Windows and your installed programs, as well as your files and libraries.

A portable hard drive is the perfect receptacle for a System Image, as you can keep the portable drive in a safe location, far from any hazards that may befall your PC. (I really like the Western Digital “Passport” drive I bought at Costco, shown in the margin.)

When your C drive eventually dies or you’re hankering to upgrade to a bigger, faster Windows drive, a System Image is your best friend. Here’s how to create one: Click to read more »

Almost everybody knows at least one Windows Key shortcut: Simply press the Windows Key () and the Start menu opens, ready for you to launch a program with a click of the mouse.

Yet, Windows comes with about 30 other Windows Key shortcuts, where you hold down the Windows Key and press a single letter or character to complete a task. Learning a few will really speed up your work, especially on laptops with their awkward trackpads.

I use these Windows key shortcuts most often:

• +E fetches the handy Computer program, which grants quick access to your drives, libraries, and favorite folders.
• + ← (the left arrow key) pins a window to your Desktop’s left edge; press and the right arrow to place another window against the right edge. That quickly aligns the windows side-by-side on your desktop, making for easy cutting and pasting between them.

• +1 launches the first program listed on your taskbar; if it’s already running, +1 brings it to the top of my desktop’s pile o’ windows. Similarly, pressing + 2 fetches the taskbar’s second program, +3 calls up the third, and so on.
• + X brings up the Mobility Center on a laptop, a subset of the Control Panel that deals exclusively with laptop features like checking the battery, and turning wireless Internet access on or off.

Here’s the full list of Windows Key shortcuts for Windows 7; many work in Windows Vista and Windows XP, as well: Click to read more »

Q: I like keeping track of my friends’ activities on Facebook, but I don’t really care to read about their accomplishments in FarmVille.

Do I have to unfriend my FarmVille-obsessed friends to stop seeing their FarmVille posts and updates?

A: One of many Facebook games, FarmVille draws millions of people together to be virtual farmers, letting them grow vegetables and raise livestock without getting their hands dirty.

Unfortunately, FarmVille’s creators plug their game by notifying everybody of each player’s FarmVille accomplishments, which can turn Facebook into a compost pile. You’ll spot similar game posts if your friends are sucked into FrontierVille, Mafia Wars, or similar gaming apps.

You can tell Facebook to block posts from FarmVille and other apps fairly easily, though, letting you see all your friend’s messages except the ones automatically generated by the games.

For example, to block CityVille posts from appearing as news from all of Facebook’s virtual mayors, follow these steps on your browser: (If you own a Blackberry, read the note at the bottom of this post.) Click to read more »

Q: The Contacts area is missing from Outlook Express. The Contacts list is so helpful when composing my emails;  I just click the address in the Contacts folder, and it appears in the e-mail’s “To” line. Help!

A: Many Windows programs let you customize their layout, showing only the portions you find useful and hiding the rest.

Unfortunately, sometimes a misplaced click will hide a feature you’ve depended upon for years.

In your case, Windows XP’s Outlook Express is now hiding the list of Contacts that usually appears in the program’s lower left corner.

To make the Contacts folder reappear, change Outlook Express’ Layout settings by following these steps:

1. Click the Start button, and open Outlook Express.
2. Click the View menu and choose Layout.
3. When the “Windows Layout Properties” window appears, click to put a checkmark in the Contacts box.
4. Click the Apply button, and the Contacts pane immediately reappears in its rightful spot.
5. Click OK to save your changes.

If you’d like to view other changes offered by the Windows Layout Properties window, spend some time in Step 3 to click the other checkboxes: Folder Bar, Folder List, Outlook Bar, Status Bar, Toolbar and Views Bar, clicking Apply after each one, in turn. If you like the change, keep it; if you don’t, click the checkbox again to return to normal.

For example, I remove the “Folder Bar” from the layout, as it takes up a little too much space on my laptop’s screen.

But whether you change layout items or not, experimenting with the Layout window lets you know exactly where to go if a Layout item suddenly disappears.

Q: Page 158 in Windows Vista for Dummies shows Internet Explorer’s Page button. When I press the Page button and choose View Source from the menu, an enormous amount of gibberish appears. Why can’t I delete that?

A: When you open Internet Explorer, click the Page button, and choose View Source from the drop-down menu, the browser shows you exactly what the current Web page sends to your computer: a bunch of special coding called “HTML” that your computer interprets to arrange the text and graphics onto the Web page.

It looks like gibberish because it’s written mostly for computers to understand, not people. In fact, most programmers don’t even read it; that code is spat out by programs designed for editing Web pages.

You can’t delete that information mainly because Internet Explorer won’t let you: The View Source page only lets you *view* that gibberish, not change it or delete it.

To get rid of the View Source page, treat it like any other window or page: Click the X in its upper right corner. Your browser will return to showing you the page, not its underpinnings.

So, why is the View Source page there at all? It serves as an easy way to examine a Web site’s building blocks, much the way an architect examines floor plans for a house. Web designers can see exactly how a Web page was built, from the ground up, examining particularly interesting bits of code to use as an inspiration when designing their own creations.

It also helps Web designers troubleshoot problems when something goes wrong with the way a browser displays their handiwork.

Unless you’re a Web designer or computer techie, the View Source option can be safely ignored.