How to Shutdown and Restart Windows 8 Systems

With prior versions of Windows, you could easily find shutdown and restart options from the Windows Start window. Not so with Windows 8. To shutdown and restart Windows 8 systems, you can hit the Windows and "C" keys simultaneously to bring up a menu of options that can lead you to a selection to put the system to sleep, shut it down, or restart it, however. The Windows key is the one with the Windows logo (4 window panes separated by a vertical and horizontal line) to the left of the Alt key. When you hit those keys, you should see a menu appear on the right side of your screen with Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings options. Click on the Settings icon and then select Power. You can then select from Sleep, Shutdown, or Restart.

References:

1. How To Restart, Log Off, Sleep And Shutdown Windows 8
   By: Usman Javaid
   Date: September 16, 2011
   addictivetips

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Changing the Office 2010 Product Key

If you need to change the Microsoft 2010 product key, e.g., to resolve an activation issue, after you have installed it, you can take the following steps to do so on a Windows 7 system:

1. Click on the Windows Start button.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Click on Programs.
4. Click on Programs and Features.
5. Right-click on Microsoft Office Professional 2010, or whatever the appropriate entry is for the version of Office installed on the system, and select Change.
6. Select Enter a Product Key.
7. Click on the Continue button.
8. Enter the new product key.
9. Click on the Continue button with "Attempt to automatically activate my product online" checked.
10. Click on the Continue button.
11. When the configuration process is completed, click on the Close button.

Reference:

1. How to Change Product Key of Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2010 and Visio 2010?
   By Mezanul
   My Technology Guide: Windows, Mac, Linux, Internet, Software, Review

[/os/windows/office] permanent link

Configure Presets for Scanning With Adobe Acrobat X

If you have a scanner attached to your system, Acrobat X Standard provides the capability to scan documents directly into PDF files. To do so, take the following steps:

1. Open Adobe Acrobat.
2. Click on File.
3. Select Create.
4. Select PDF from Scanner.
5. You can then choose whether you want to scan in color or black and white or have the software "Autodetect Color Mode".

Acrobat has some preset configurations from which you can choose. The choices available to you are as follows:

• Autodetect Color Mode
• Black & White Document
• Grayscale Document
• Color Document
• Color Image

If you wish to adjust the settings for any of those preset scan configuration optsions for certain scans you perform regularly, follow the above steps, but instead of picking the color mode at the last step above, choose Configure Presets.

That will open a Configure Presets window where you can adjust settings for a particular color mode choice. You can change the resolution, the quality of scanned images (higher quality equates to larger file size), whether you are prompted for scanning more pages into one PDF document, etc. E.g., if you wanted to have 300 DPI, the highest available image quality, have Acrobat prompt you for scanning more pages, but not run Optical Character Recognition (OCR), you would select settings as shown below:

When you have adjusted the settings appropriately, click on Save and then Close.

Reference:

1. Scan a paper document to PDF
   Date: February 3, 2012

[/os/windows/software/pdf/acrobat] permanent link

Dealing with the bad parameter message when attempting to scan with Acrobat

When I attempted to use Acrobat X Standard to scan a document from an HP LaserJet 3052 scanner, I received a "bad parameter" error message. I've posted the steps here for dealing with the issue.

I needed to use the Adobe Acrobat X software for scanning rather than the Windows® Fax and Scan utility that came with Microsoft Windows 7 because that software doesn't provide the capability to scan multiple pages into one file nor even provide the capability to save the scanned image to a PDF file. It also doesn't allow one to create presets where you select a preset configuration, e.g., color and 200 dpi, for certain documents you may scan regularly, whereas Adobe Acrobat X does provide that capability.

I was able to scan documents using Adobe Acrobat X and the HP LaserJet 3052 printer/scanner/copier, however, unlike with the Windows® Fax and Scan utility, they always looked garbled when scanned on the Windows 7 system.

[/os/windows/software/pdf/acrobat] permanent link

Steps for Transferring Outlook Signatures from an XP to Windows 7 System

To transfer Microsoft Outlook 2010 signatures from a Microsoft Windows XP system to a Microsoft Windows 7 system take the following steps:

1. On the source system, i.e., the Windows XP system, open the Windows Explorer and navigate to \Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures
   Note: You may have to turn on the display of hidden files and folders to view the folder; steps to do so on a Windows XP system are detailed here.
2. Copy the contents of the Signatures folder to \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures on the Windows 7 system.
   Note: In both cases username should be the relevant account name on the two systems. Instructions for displaying hidden files and folders on a Windows 7 system can be found here.

If you need to copy Outlook stationery from one system to another, simply navigate to the Stationery folder instead of the Signatures folder.

[/os/windows/office/outlook] permanent link

Acronis Bootable Media Image Backup

I was unable to backup a new HP PC with RAID drives using a couple of other backup programs I often use, but was able to do so using Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5.

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