Quick: What time is it in Dublin right now? How about Sydney? Mumbai? Cape Town?
Sometimes, that question is just a curiosity. But if you or any of your regular contacts are traveling, it’s good to be able to look up a foreign time zone at a glance.
All modern versions of Windows allow you to add up to two extra clocks to the taskbar. The time you see on the taskbar is the local time zone. But hover the mouse pointer over that time and you’ll see the extra clocks you defined. Click the time to see analog (Windows 7) or digital (Windows 10) clocks for all time zones.
To add an extra clock, right-click the taskbar clock and then click Adjust Date/Time. In Windows 7, click the Additional Clocks tab. In Windows 10, click Add Clocks For Different Time Zones. Select Show This Clock, pick a time zone, and add a descriptive label for each custom clock.
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Move Documents, Downloads, and other data folders to a different drive:
Every supported version of Windows includes a group of “known folders” for storing specific data types–Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and so on.
By default, these folders are stored on the system drive in your user profile folder, typically C:Users[username]. But you might want to move them to a more appropriate location if you have multiple physical drives. For example, say you have a relatively small SSD as a system drive (C:) on a desktop PC and a much larger conventional hard disk (D:) for data files. In that configuration, it makes sense to move your folders to the D: drive. (This procedure also works if you’ve expanded storage with a MicroSD card.)
Just open your user profile folder by entering %userprofile% in the Run box to display a list of all the folders in that location. Right-click the first folder you want to move, click Properties, and then click the Location tab. Enter the path of the location you want to use. (I created a new folder on the D: drive to hold data files, so my Downloads folder is at D:EdDownloads.)
If the folder name you entered doesn’t exist, Windows will create it. Be sure to click Yes when asked if you want to move all current data files to the new folder.
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Windows regularly offers to save passwords on your behalf. When you connect to a server on your network with a username and password other than the one you logged in with, for example, you’re prompted to save the credentials for reuse. Likewise, Internet Explorer and Edge allow you to save passwords so you can enter them automatically when you return to that page.
Those passwords are saved in a secure location that only you can open, using a well-hidden tool called Credential Manager.
You’ll find this option in Control Panel, under the User Accounts heading. In Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, it’s easier to just type credential in the search box and click Credential Manager at the top of the search results.
Separate icons at the top of the Credential Manager list let you view and manage saved Web credentials and Windows credentials. The Web Passwords list can’t be sorted and there’s no search option, so you’ll have to scroll through the list to find a specific entry. Click the down arrow to the right of any entry to see the saved username and password and click Remove if you don’t want that password stored. (The only way to change a saved password is to remove it and then save it by entering the new password in your web browser.)
The Windows Credentials screen offers Edit and Remove buttons for every entry, along with a handy option to back up and restore saved credentials. That’s a small timesaver when you’re setting up a new PC.
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Get the inside story on how your PC is managing power:
One of the most powerful diagnostic tools in Windows doesn’t have a graphical interface.
The Powercfg command, which is available only from a command line, allows you to manage, save, and export power settings. But its best trick is the ability to produce a detailed report of energy usage on your PC, including clues about devices or services that are preventing your system from going to sleep when it should.
To produce the energy report, open an administrative Command Prompt window. (From Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, right-click Start and then click Command Prompt (Admin).)
At the command prompt, type cd %temp% and then press Enter to switch to the Temp folder, where your report will be saved.
Enter the command powercfg /energy to begin generating the report. The process monitors your system for 60 seconds and then analyzes the results, saving the report as a document called energy-report.html in the current folder.
To open that report in your default browser, just enter the command start energy-report.html.
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Every version of Windows dating back to Windows Vista has included the Windows Software Licensing Management Tool, a script file found in the Windows System 32 folder as Slmgr.vbs. The script is designed for a local administrator to run in an elevated Command Prompt window.
Most people never need to use this tool, but it can come in handy when you’re trying to resolve activation problems or upgrade a Windows PC. The secret is knowing which switches to add to the end of the command to achieve the desired result.
If you just type the command, with no switches, you get a series of five dialog boxes that list all those switches. Network administrators who manage a Key Management server for Volume Licensing will find a goldmine here. For the rest of us, the three most commonly used switches are the following:
Slmgr.vbs /dli Displays basic license information, including the last five characters of the product key
Slmgr.vbs /dlv Displays much more detailed license information
Slmgr.vbs /cpky Removes the product key from the registry so that it can’t be copied and reused
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You probably have two, three, or maybe even more folders that sync files from cloud to your PC right now: Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and so on. How do you keep track of all that cloud content? Set up a Cloud Files library in File Explorer. Here’s how:
In Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, right-click any empty space in the navigation pane on the left and make sure Show Libraries is selected. (Libraries are visible by default in Windows 7’s Explorer.)
Right-click the Libraries heading and then click New | Library. Change the default name to something descriptive, like Cloud Files.
Right-click the first locally synced cloud folder and select Include In Library, choosing the name of your newly created library.
Repeat that step for each additional local folder.
That’s it. You can now get a unified view of all your cloud files by selecting that library in File Explorer. Use the search box to quickly find any file, regardless of where it’s stored.
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Save time and keystrokes with environment variables:
When asked to open your user profile in File Explorer, you’ll probably type its full path: C, colon, backslash, Users, backslash, followed by your user name. But there’s a much faster way:
Type %userprofile% and press Enter.
Congratulations, you just saved a half-dozen keystrokes or so by using one of many useful environment variables in Windows. These are reserved names, enclosed between percent signs, that represent the current location of a specific system folder.
Here are a few other useful ones to know:
%localappdata% The hidden folder in your user profile where Windows apps store your data
%windir% The folder containing Windows system files; usually C:Windows
%public% A special user profile that contains folders for Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos, intended for sharing on a home network
%temp% or %tmp% The normally hidden folder where Windows and apps can store files necessary for one-time tasks
Some people write these variables using mixed case (%ProgramFiles%, for example) to make them easier to read. But they’re not case sensitive, so skip the Shift key if you want.
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The Send To menu is a particularly useful feature in File Explorer. You can right-click any file or folder, choose Send To, and copy or move those objects to a folder of your choosing. You can also open compatible files by sending them to an application shortcut.
Unfortunately, the default list of Send To destinations is sketchy to say the least. But if you create a shortcut, you can customize that list to your heart’s content. The secret is to open the Run box (Windows key + R), type the command shell:sendto, and then press Enter.
The folder with all the items you see on the Send To list will pop up. To delete an item, just right click it and select delete. To add destinations, like the Videos or Music folders, by dragging them from the menu on the left.
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Microsoft begins selling its new highest-end Office 365 business plan, E5, on December 1 for $420 per user per year. Here’s what’s included.
Microsoft will charge users $35 per user per month, or $420 per year, for its new highest-end Office 365 business plan.
Microsoft officials went public with the pricing for Office 365 E5, its top-of-the-line commercial Office 365 offering, on November 30 during the company’s Convergence EMEA conference. Office 365 E5 is available to customers for purchase starting, December 1.
Office 365 E4 — the current high-end version of Microsoft’s Office 365 line — sells for $22 per user per month, or $264 per user, per year.
The Office 365 E5 SKU will include Skype for Business (Lync) with support for features including Cloud PBX and Meeting Broadcast; new analytics features, like Power BI Pro and Delve Organizational Analytics; and new advanced security features, such as eDiscovery, Customer Lockbox, and Safe Attachments.
Office 365 E4 includes Skype for Business with Enterprise Voice and unified messaging; the full suite of locally downloadable Office apps; and Power BI for Office 365 (which is being superseded by Power BI pro).
Microsoft is planning to retire E4 and replace it with E5. However, Office 365 E4 will remain on the price list till June 30, 2016, Microsoft officials have said.
The E1 and E3 versions of Office 365 will retain their current prices of $8 per user per month, and $20 per user per month, respectively.
Office 365 E1 users will get new work-management capabilities, as well as Skype for Business’s Meeting Broadcast functionality added to their plans for no additional charge. Office 365 E3 users will get those same two new features, as well as the option to purchase Equivio Analytics for eDiscovery. (Microsoft bought Equivio in January 2015.)
Skype Meeting Broadcast enables users to broadcast of a Skype for Business meeting on the Internet to up to 10,000 people, who can attend in a browser.
Office 365 E5 users get all the features that E1 and E3 users get, plus other analytics and networking functionality, including Cloud PBX and PSTN Conferencing.
The Skype for Business Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling service provides users with the ability to make and receive traditional phone calls in their Skype for Business client, and to manage these calls using hold, resume, forward and transfer.
PSTN Conferencing is initially available to 15 countries on December 1, with a phased roll out to international markets in the future. Cloud PBX is available worldwide starting December 1. PSTN Calling is available in the U.S. starting December 1, with a phased roll out to international markets in the future.
The fine print: PSTN Conferencing users may incur additional per-minute consumption charges, but customer can disable this feature to avoid additional billing. PSTN Calling is paid add-on for E1, E3 and E5. For E5 users, PSTN Calling costs $24 extra (per user, per month) for international and domestic calling, and $12 for domestic calling only. For E1 and E3, the international and domestic calling plan is $32 extra.
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Now, there’s more opportunities than ever to build your business.Office 216 is the latest addition to Office 365—taking the work out of working together. The new Office is built for teamwork. Perfect for Windows 10. Smart. Secure. Full of new features.
Consider the opportunities.
Exciting new advances in Office open new opportunities for you to deepen your role as trusted advisor and to expand your practice—and your revenue potential. Here are a few paths to consider:
Reach new customers by leveraging the innovative user experiences in Office 2016 apps
Grow your hybrid practice with cloud-inspired infrastructure in Office 2016 servers
Capitalize on Office 2016 launch momentum to renew or upsell Office 365
We think that Office 2016 is an important step in empowering every organization on the planet to achieve more. Action Pack and Competency partners can get started right away by using your internal use rights (IUR) benefits to download Office 365. Once you’re familiar with the new Office you can show your customers how to get the most from the new features.
