Sometimes a cool feature can be staring you in the face. However if you are an explorer like me then you would have already realised that in Windows Vista there is a new enhanced volume control mixer.

Where is the Windows Vista Volume control?

The volume icon is usually in the notification area in the task bar in the right hand corner of your screen.
How to show the volume control icon in the notification area on the taskbar:

If it is not there see how to Add or remove icons from your Windows Vista notification area This article will help you bring back the volume control icon.

How to change the volume on each individual program in Windows Vista:

All you have to do is click the volume icon in your system tray, and then click on the word Mixer at the bottom. Then you will see your different programs listed each with a different volume control.

Watch this video tutorial on how to change the volume of individual programs in Windows Vista.

There are many benefits to writing an email in rich html format in Windows Mail or Outlook Express. One of the main benefits would be that you can insert links to websites. Another great fact is that you can also insert a picture into your email so the person receiving the email sees the picture straight away.  Writing an email in HTML rich text format also can make your email look like a professional webpage.

How to make your Windows mail email into a webpage with links and pictures

1. Open Windows Mail
2. Click on the create mail icon at the top
3. Got to the format menu and choose rich text HTML from the menu
4. Now a HTML editor tool bar will appear just above where you will write the content of your email.

How to insert a link into your email?

You can make your text into a html link. So therefore you can link to a website and user anchor text. For example you can make this Tips4pc link to the Tips4pc website, instead of having this ugly link http://www.tips4pc.com

1. Select the text in the content of your email by making it blue.
2. Then press on Create a hyperlink icon in the HTML toolbar.

How to insert a picture from your hard drive or one stored on the internet?

Not only can you insert pictures from your hard drive but you can also insert pictures and graphics that are stored on the internet. Just simply go to the picture you want in your email. Right click on it and choose properties. Then copy the url of the picture. So when you need to say where the picture is stored, you can paste that url in and the picture will appear in your email.

1. Click on the insert picture icon.
2. To insert a picture from your computer click on browse to find a picture on your hard drive.
3. To insert a picture that is stored on the internet paste the url into where it says location.

You know that annoying message that keeps coming up asking you to cancel or allow your actions, well this is the user account control in Windows Vista. I really do not understand why it is there, because you can still press allow and stuff your computer up very easily. I just think its an annoying message and I always turn it off in Windows Vista.

All you have to do is tick or untick a box and the UAC (user account conrol will be turned off.

Watch this easy video tutorial showing how to turn off the UAC.

If your Email provider did not give you a setup disc you can setup a Windows Mail account manually as long as you have the settings available;

What you need to setup an account in Windows Mail:

1. You will need the Windows Mail program that comes free with Windows Vista
2. You will need to know your email address
3. Your password
4. Your incoming mail server
5. Your outgoing mail server
6. Sometimes you will need to know a port number to use. The default is 25, however some mail servers need to use 80.

Watch this video below to see how to add an email account to Windows Mail.

Adding people to your contact list in Windows Mail is pretty much exactly like Outlook Express in Windows XP. However there is an Extra Windows Mail tip for you.

Here are a few different ways to add a contact to your address book in Windows Mail.

Add a sender to your contact list

1. When your emails have come in and you see them in the inbox. Before opening them you can select it by making it blue.
2. Then right click and choose add sender to the address book.
3. Now you will be taken to the address book to edit your new contact.

Add all email addresses that came with the email

1. Open an email that has more than one recipient. (Your friend sent it to you and three others)
2. Then go to the tools menu.
3. Choose add sender to address book.
4. Then you will have a choice to choose to add the sender, everyone on the list, or choose the addresses individually. For example: my uncle sent me an email but he had sent it to my two cousins as well. Therefore in that list were my cousins email addresses.

 Also watch this video tutorial on how to add a contact to your address book in Windows mail.

• How to extract audio from a movie video clip and save the file as an Mp3, Ac3, Amr, Wma, Wav, etc..
• How to bring back the Desktop tab when it is missing from the display properties
• How to covert any video format or extract audio – avi,dvd,vob,flv,mpeg,ipod,mp3,Ac3,svcd,mp4,etc..
• Change the Windows Vista Start menu to a classic menu
• A free program to recover (Recuva) and restore accidentally deleted pictures, photos, and files

You don’t always have to double click on icons, files, and folders to open them. You can customize your mouseclick to suit your needs. I personally like to dispose of the double clicking and choose single click with underlining. So when you move your mouse over a filename or folder it will become underlined and makes it very clear that you are about to click on it.

How to change mouse clicking from double click to single click in Windows Vista.

1. Go to the start menu and choose computer
2. From the menu, choose tools. If there is no menu you can press the ALT key for them to appear. Also see Show the old menu with file, edit, tools, and view in Windows Vista.
3. Then choose Folder Options from the menu.
4. On the general tab undering the heading click items as follows, choose single-click to open an item.
5. Then choose which single click option you want to use.
6. Then press apply and ok.

 Watch this video tutorial to see an example of the different types of single click options in Windows Vista.