Windows 7 Tips And Tricks

Mac Mini Basics

Accessing your "My Documents" folder on the M: Drive

Creating and Using Shortcuts

Adding a Printer

Mapping a Drive

Burning CDs, DVDs and Disc Images

Search for Files or Folders

Microsoft Office 2010

Mac Mini Basics

How to tell if your Mac Mini is on, off or sleeping.

If your Mac Mini is on, you'll see a tiny white LED light in the front.  If the Mini is sleeping, the white light will be slowly flashing.  If there is no light, the Mini is off.

How to turn on your Mac Mini

Turn your Mac Mini on by pressing the slightly raised power button located on the back of the Mini on the right side.

Sleep Mode

We ask that you do not turn off your Mini, but instead just log off and let it sleep so ITS can apply updates.  (The Minis use 3-4 watts when sleeping and 1-2 watts when off, so don't worry about power consumption.)

Log off by clicking the start button, then "Log off."

To wake the Mini from sleep mode, click any key on the keyboard or mouse.  It should wake in 6-7 seconds.

Your display also goes to sleep.  If the Mini is still on (the white LED in the front is on, but not flashing), but the screen goes black, move the mouse to wake the display.  This happens 2 minutes before the Mini itself goes into sleep mode.

The default time before the display goes to sleep is 3 minutes; it's 5 minutes before the Mini goes to sleep.  To change these settings, click the Start button, then "Control Panel."

From Control Panel, click "Hardware and Sound."

Then click "Change when your computer sleeps."

Then  use the drop-down boxes to change the sleep settings for the display and the computer.

Adjusting Sound

In the bottom right-hand corner is the Sound icon.  If you aren’t getting any sound, check to see that the speaker icon does not have a red circle with a line through it over it.  To mute/unmute and adjust the volume, there are buttons at the very top of the black keyboards that make it easy to do so.

Ejecting a CD

To eject a disc that is in the CD drive, double-click on Computer on your desktop, right-click on Drive D:, and choose "Eject."

Setting the Mac Mini to automatically turn back on after a power outage.

To have the Mini automatically restart after a power interruption, click Start, then “Control Panel” on the right column.

From the Control Panel, click “System and Security”.

Click “Boot Camp” at the bottom.

Click “Yes” when you’re prompted by the “Do you want the following program to make changes to your computer?” box.

In Boot Camp, click the “Power” tab and check the “Restart automatically after a power failure” box.

Common Logon errors

“The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed”

If you get this error when trying to log in, manually restart the computer. Holding the power button until the white LED on the front of the Mini turns off, and then push the power button to turn the Mini back on.

“There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request”

If you get this error when you try to log in, keep trying. Enter your username and password again, and again, and again….

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Accessing "My Documents" on the M: drive

There are many ways of accessing your "My Documents" folder.  A couple of the easiest ways are:

1. In the Start menu, click on "My Document" under your name in the right column.

2. On your desktop, double-click on the folder with your name on it, then double-click on the "My Documents" folder.

Creating and Using Shortcuts

Create keyboard shortcuts for programs.

Just right-click on the program, go to Properties, select the Shortcut tab, and in the box next to Shortcut Key, type in what you'd like the shortcut to be.

Extended right-click menu

Shift + right-click gives an extended menu.

Pin folders and programs to the taskbar

Windows 7 lets you pin applications and files to the taskbar so that you can launch them more efficiently, similar to the “dock” in Mac OS X.

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Ctrl+ Shift + Click

Hold down Ctrl and Shift while launching an application from the Taskbar or start menu to launch it with full administrative rights.

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Adding a Printer

To add a network printer, double-click the “GC Utilities” icon on the Desktop.  Then select Add a Printer from the list. From the Explorer window that pops up, double-click the printer you want to add.  This will install drivers and allow you to print to this printer.

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Mapping a Drive

GCFile, or the M Drive, is already mapped. To access the www2 personal web space on the V drive or www department web space on the W drive, click “GC Utilities” from the desktop and then double-click “Map VDrive” or “Map W Drive”.

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Burning CDs, DVDs and Disc Images

Burning files to CD or DVD

If you’d like to burn a CD or DVD for storing or transferring files (not for playing music in a CD player or playing video in a DVD player), insert a blank CD or DVD into the computer.

An AutoPlay box will soon appear. Click “Burn files to disc using Windows Explorer”.

In the next dialog box, click “Like a USB flash drive”.

A small formatting box will come up. After it’s done formatting, click “Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer”. This will open a folder window.

After you’ve added your files, click “Eject” and you’re done.

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Burning a Disc Image

Windows 7 comes with a disc image burning program. Double-click your image file to open the Windows Disc Image Burner.  Insert a blank disc and and click Burn.

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Search for Files or Folders

The start menu now has a search bar that functions similarly to the search feature in previous versions of Windows, but is now more easily accessible

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