I

received an email from Ben in Arizona last week.  First of all you may ask, "Are you published in Arizona?"  The answer is nope, but I sure wish I was. Maybe then Kim Komando would discover me and I would be on my way to fame and fortune…yeah, right.  I have had people write to me in the past from all over the world. I have heard from several countries; Switzerland, Japan and one fellow in Greenland to name a few.  The internet provides access everywhere, with the exception of certain countries for various political reasons.  But that’s enough of that.  Let’s get back to Ben.

Ben wanted to know how he could change his user account picture in Windows XP.  He did not want to change it to those standard pictures in XP.  You know…the butterfly, chess pieces, rubber ducky or frog.  He wanted something of his own.  Well he (and maybe you) didn’t realize it but you can change your user account picture to any picture on your computer.  It is very simple to do and works the same on XP, Vista and 7.

First, in order to get to your User Accounts screen for XP you have to go to Start, Control Panel and User Accounts.  However, Vista and especially Windows 7 are much easier. All you have to do is click the Start button and type, "User Accounts", wait a couple of seconds and press enter.

First, you must have rights to change your user account.  If you go to the following locations and they are grayed out or you cannot access them, you need to get with your computer’s administrator and have them give you permission

Once on the User Accounts screen click on your picture/account.  You will see a link that says, "Change my picture".  Pretty easy so far, isn’t it?

Click the "Browse for more pictures" link.  Scroll to the very bottom of the screen if you cannot see it already.  Now, navigate to the folder containing the picture you wish to use.  Most likely it will be in your "My Pictures" folder.

Click the picture and click the open button.  You may also double click on the picture to add it to your account.  The picture will now be the "avatar" for your user account.

Picture size is important to an extent. If you want your pictures to fit perfectly, size them to 128 x 128 pixels.  If they are larger Windows will crop them as it sees fit, with the center in the middle of the graphic; however, you may lose the edges.  Windows does a good job of fitting a larger picture into the smaller space automatically.

Be aware that the computer’s administrator can change all users’ pictures.  However, a user with a limited account or someone using a guest account can only change their own picture.

Check out the video of this at "bit.ly/gcIdj1" and let me know what you think (of course since you are reading this here, online, all you have to do is look below).  Let me know what you would like to learn in the Double Click columns.  I always like to hear from you.  Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Tags: avatar, butterfly, chess, chess pieces, Email, fame and fortune, fellow, frog, japan, kim komando, picture, rubber ducky, switzerland, Tips, tricks, User Account, vista, windows 7, xp

I have been written to by several of the "Double Click" readers as to why I have not mentioned Microsoft Windows 7 very often.  The answer is that there are about 50 bazillion other geeks out there, who have written about it relentlessly since it rolled out to the public in October, 2009.  I figured I would let the clamor die down some before I started.

Today I come out of hiding with W7 (get used to the abbreviation, it saves column space). 

I will start with the question that I usually get first. "Do you use W7, yet?"  Yes, I do, everywhere!  I have been testing the pre-launch versions of W7 for about a year now.  I have been using the final version since it launched. 

All of my computers run this new Operating System (OS) including my wife’s notebook, save one.  I still run Vista on my home desktop because that computer has more software and data on it than any of the others.  Rebuilding that particular machine will take several days to get "just right". Procrastination wins! 

The next most common question I get is, "Should I switch to W7?"  That really depends on you.  If you are not happy with your current OS (Vista?) and you have the extra money, sure go ahead and make the change.  If you do not have any complaints, why fix it if it ain’t broke? 

That being said, I will as good as guarantee that if you do go to W7 you will like it.  It looks similar to Vista. However, it is much faster since it uses less system resources.  It has many very positive features that you will like.

When conversing about W7 the next question usually is, "What do you like best about the OS?"  My wise guy answer is, "Everything."  However, the primary element I enjoy was also present in Vista; though, it did not function nearly as well…the search feature.

Say for instance I want to run Excel.  I can click the orb (used to be called the start button when it was rectangular) or press the Windows key on my keyboard and just type, "excel".  A menu list is generated with everything on my computer that has "excel" in it.  The Excel program is at the top of the list.  All I do is press the Enter key and Excel starts right up. 

If I know that I have a file with the words, "Windows 7" in it.  I just type it, like I just did, and three files are listed.  Three columns which I wrote; one each in April and June of 2009 and the one you are reading now.

That is a great, efficient and very speedy way to work.  So thanks, Microsoft, for that as well as the additional features we will be talking about in the future.

Tags: excel, microsoft, orb, Ron Doyle, vista, windows, windows 7, xp