There are many different programs that can capture screenshot videos (known as “screen captures” or “screencaps”), and many different tools that can convert the movies to animated gifs that are easy to show on a website. Here are the two I use (they work with Vista and earlier versions of Windows):

• HyperCam2. Captures a portion of your screen to an AVI file. Can capture sound (or not). This has a free trial, but it’s $40 to buy, and I haven’t found a free tool that does the job.
• Microsoft GIF Animator. Converts an AVI file to a animated GIF. This is a free tool.

First, use HyperCam to capture the portion of the window you want to record. Then, open the saved AVI file in Microsoft GIF Animator. Configure it (such as causing it to repeat or removing excess frames), and save the GIF file. Then, put the GIF file on your website like any other file type. I made the animation below (which shows the non-Aero alt-Tab in Vista) using these tools.

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I’m addicted to the AutoCorrect feature in Word–I use it to both fix common misspellings and to shorten long phrases. For example, if hold they Shift key down too long and type “VIsta”, Word will automatically fix it for me by changing the second letter to lowercase: “Vista”. Similarly, I can add custom AutoCorrect entries to allow me to type long, common phrases with just a couple of letters. For example, I can type “WV” and Word will automatically replace it with “Windows Vista”. This is helpful if you’re a good typist, but if you’re a bad typist, this can be a godsend.
Here’s the problem: I don’t always write in Word. Right now, I’m typing in a browser window, which doesn’t have AutoCorrect. Here’s the answer: Type Access.

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When editing a document in Word or any other editor, I often need to scroll to a different place in the document to look at something I wrote earlier, or to copy and paste some text. To quickly return to the last place you typed, press Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y. That undos and then redos your last change. It doesn’t affect your clipboard though, so anything you copied while scrolled away is still intact.

Most flash games (casual games that open in your browser) assume you have a small monitor with a resolution of 800×600. If you have a higher resolution monitor, the game might be really small in the middle of your screen.

With Internet Explorer 7 (either in Windows Vista or Windows XP), you can zoom the game in to be almost full-screen (after the jump).

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I’m an obsessive photographer. Normally, I sell my pictures, but here are a couple free seasonal pictures you can use as your wallpaper. Just follow these steps:

1. Click the picture you want as your wallpaper so that the larger picture opens in your browser.

2. Right-click the picture, and then click Set as Background.

3. Click Yes when prompted.

I scaled these pictures way down to make them easier to download–my camera (a Canon 5D) takes huge pictures.

Some programs come in .ISO files, which you need to burn to a CD or DVD and then read. There are several tools out there that trick Windows into thinking that a .ISO file (or another disk image file type, like .BIN or .CCD) is a physical disk so you can skip the step of burning it. The only one I know of that works with Vista at this time is Virtual ConeDrive. It’s free, and it works perfectly. Thanks, SlySoft.

If you have a tool you like more, add a comment.

I’m a touch-typist and I find it much faster to use keyboard shortcuts whenever possible. Here are my favorite keyboard shortcuts–most of which work just as well in earlier versions of Windows. The “Windows” key is that funny key at the bottom-left of your keyboard, between the Ctrl and Alt keys.

• Windows-F. Open a search window to quickly search files, e-mail, pictures, and music on your computer. Probably my favorite Vista feature.
• Windows-E. Open an Explorer window showing your computer.

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