The clarity of text and images on your screen can depend largely on how you set your monitor's screen resolution. At high resolutions, such as 1280 by 1024 pixels, you can display more on the screen—but text and images will look smaller.

At lower resolutions, such as 800 by 600 pixels, objects will appear larger but may look jagged and less sharp. The optimal setting to choose really depends on your monitor and the larger the monitor the higher resolution it supports. Most newer computers have already been pre-configured for you, but you can try various options to see what works best for you. You can quickly change this setting by right-clicking any empty space on your desktop, then choosing "screen resolution" in the menu.

Do you sometimes forget the file attachments you meant to include in an email message? Thanks to a free plugin for Outlook, now you can be alerted when you do just that.

Head over to CodeTwo's website and download the free Outlook Attachment Reminder. Install and configure it to scan for text in your email's subject line and body text (such as "attachment" or "attached" or "see document"). When you press the send button, if the system finds that you included these phrases but did not attach a file, it will prompt you to do so before sending out the email.

In Windows 7, when you access the control panel window from the Start Menu, by default you open the window using the Category view, and what you see is a shortened list of possible actions you can do from the Control Panel screen.

You can change the view to Icons to get a longer list, but this can display a confusing mess of icons. A possibly better way is to use the default Category View, and then in the Search box in the upper right corner type "e", for example. The search filter will then show the list of actions you can do which contain the letter "e". You will be amazed at how much Windows actually hides by default. You can then use the list to further narrow down the action items you are looking for.

In Outlook, you can color code messages addressed only to you, to easily identify messages that may be more important or require action from you.

Go to the Tools menu and choose Organize. In the "Using Colors" section, select the "Turn on" button next to "Show messages sent only to me in Blue." You can also choose to define a different color if you want.

Do you frequently use Google’s online services such as Gmail, Calendar, and Reader? Do wish there were a way you could view all of these services in one page? If you use Mozilla Firefox as your browser, you’re in luck. Firefox has a free Addon called “Integrated Gmail” which allows you to view these services from one page.

Go to the Mozilla Firefox Addon page and click the “+Add to Firefox” button for Integrated Gmail. Be sure to click on the Install button that shows in the popup confirmation dialog box. After the addon installs, restart your browser and then log in to your Gmail account. Magically, new links to Reader, Calendar, and other Google services will appear in your page.

Do you frequently use Google's online services such as Gmail, Calendar, and Reader? Do wish there were a way you could view all of these services in one page? If you use Mozilla Firefox as your browser, you're in luck. Firefox has a free Addon called "Integrated Gmail" which allows you to view these services from one page.

Go to the Mozilla Firefox Addon page and click the "+Add to Firefox" button for Integrated Gmail. Be sure to click on the Install button that shows in the popup confirmation dialog box. After the addon installs, restart your browser and then log in to your Gmail account. Magically, new links to Reader, Calendar, and other Google services will appear in your page.