Tables can be embedded in emails easily. If a Thunderbird user receives an email that contains a table he is up for a problem though. It does not matter how he tries to copy the table or selected parts of it because the end result will always be that the formatting is lost. There is no way to copy a table from Thunderbird into Microsoft Excel or similar applications and retain the rows and columns of that table.

Table 2 Clipboard is a Thunderbird extension that adds this much needed feature to Thunderbird. The extension can be used to copy a table or part of it to the clipboard retaining the format of it. Pasting that data into a spreadsheet will put the data into rows and columns just like the original data was.

The add-on has to be downloaded from Mozilla and installed using the Tools > Addons menu in Thunderbird. A click on Install in that menu will open a file browser where the downloaded extension has to be selected.

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Tags: copy tables, email client, mozilla thunderbird, tables thunderbird, thunderbird, thunderbird addon, thunderbird extension, thunderbird tips
Categories: Email

Microsoft released a new beta version with the build number 6002.16497 to Windows Vista Service Pack 2 beta testers who can download the second service pack from Windows Update or Microsoft Connect. The Registry entry that was posted in the last article to download Service Pack 2 from Windows Update is still valid and can be used to update the build from version 105 to 113.

It should be noted though that users have to uninstall the last build before they will be able to download the current one since there is no way of updating the builds on top of each other. Users who have already installed Windows Vista Service Pack 2 105 will have to uninstall it, reboot their computer and connect to Windows Update again where they have to download a series of updates that brings the version of the service pack to 113.

Users who did not install the latest service pack beta can simply apply the Registry keys of the file and connect to Windows Update to bring their Vista operating system to version 113 as well.

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Tags: microsoft, service pack 2 beta, sp2 beta, vista service pack 2, vista sp2, windows vista sp2, windows-vista
Categories: Windows

If you ask Windows system administrators about their favorite non commercial software publishers the names Nirsoft and Sysinternals will be mentioned without doubt lots of times. Both produce high quality software that can be useful in many occasions.

Windows System Control Center is a frontend for Nirsoft and Sysinternals software programs. The portable software displays the options at first start which is important to make sure the path to Sysinternals and Nirsoft applications is set correctly. Only one directory can be selected that has to contain all applications. This is not such a big problem for Sysinternals because the Sysinternals Live address is given as a backup for that. Most, if not all, of the Nirsoft and Sysinternals applications are portable which means it should not be a problem to move them into one single directory though.

The Control Center will display the applications sorted by publisher and categories but it is also possible to display all applications in one huge list. A click on a category will load the application list which contains a short description of each application listed in that category, a button to launch it and a icon at the beginning that gives information if the application is installed or can be started online.

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Tags: administrator, nirsoft, portable software, sysinternals, system administrator, windows software, Windows System Control Center
Categories: Windows, software

The last days have been filled with news posts about Windows 7. Everyone posted news about the upcoming operating system and it was quite hard to keep an overview of the things that came to light during the PDC 08 convention. That convention is over now and it is time to lean back and take a look at some of the news that came to light.

One of the main announcements was the new Windows 7 taskbar – superbar as some called it – which added a new level of interactivity to the operating system. Users will have to get used to it because of the combination of static and dynamic items that can now be placed in it. Check out the article at Windows 7 News for a complete Windows 7 Taskbar rundown. One aspect that Microsoft left unchanged is the position of the Start button which still cannot be changed.

Windows 7 boot time was another hot topic. Steven Sinofsky mentioned changes to Windows Services in a Q&A session which reduced the Windows 7 boot time. Services could be set to automatic, manual or disabled in previous versions of Windows. Windows 7 services can also be event related. If x starts run service y. This made it possible to delay the start of several services so that they are not started during boot time.

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Tags: microsoft-windows, steven sinofsky, Windows, windows 7, windows 7 news
Categories: Windows

We have covered the online service Rasterbator in the past that converted an image into a rasterized wall poster. Block Posters is a similar service with the difference that the images are not rasterized which makes the results even more impressive.

A large wall poster is created in three steps. An image is uploaded to the website from the user’s computer in the first one. Step 2 is the actual creation process. The user picks the size in Din A4 sheets that he wants the poster to be. Images with larger resolutions work better than smaller ones obviously. The default setting is a width of 4 pages which can be changed to another figure between 1 which would be the original size of the image to 10. Choosing a width of ten would make the wall poster 7 feet wide and 5.6 feet high. The default width of 4 would still create a 2.8 feet wide and 2.2 feet high wall poster.

Once the width has been selected the user can change the view from portrait to landscape and the format from A4 to US Letter if he likes. A click on continue will create the wall poster on the server and provide a download in PDF format.

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Tags: block posters, create-poster, gift ideas, posters, print poster, rasterbator, wall posters
Categories: Online Services, The Web

Compared to Linux, it is extremely difficult to customise the appearance of Windows. The most popular, and definitely the most effective, piece of software is Stardock’s WindowsBlinds, which allows Windows to be skinned.

Thousands of skins are available, ranging from Star Trek-themed ones, to OS X-themed ones and even to superhero-inspired ones! Whilst changing the appearance of Windows has little functunional benefit, it makes a computer feel less impersonal and companies can use skins to reinforce their identity.

WindowsBlinds works on all versions of Windows since 98, although only older ‘Classsic’ versions of WindowsBlinds work on 98, ME and 2000.

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Tags: skin windows, skins, Windows, windows skins, windows themes, windowsblinds
Categories: Tools, Windows

Several free applications exist to install operating systems on so called virtual machines. This method provides a few benefits, for example the option to reset it whenever it is needed. It provides a great way of accessing operating systems either to test them or to run applications which would not run on the default operating system.

Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007 is one of the applications that can be used to run virtual systems on a single computer system. It has been optimized for Microsoft operating systems but can also be used to install and run operating systems from other developers. Setting up a virtual machine is actually a very straightforward easy process.

Virtual PC 2007 provides the option to create a virtual machine or to add an existing virtual machine from an vmc file which is good for distributing virtual machines to multiple computer systems.

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Tags: microsoft virtual pc, software, virtual operating system, virtual pc, virtual-machine, vmc files
Categories: Windows, software