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Make a backup copy of all the files in the folder %appdata%MicrosoftWindowsRecentAutomaticDestinations. These are binary (not text) files. Each one contains the jumplist for one application.

You might like to try the free program JumpListsView.exe from NirSoft (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/jump_lists_view.html) to see what’s there. The command line switch /stext will make a text file of the lists, but that can’t be reloaded like a backup.

I second RG’s response. In addition, unplug the external drive’s power supply, so it won’t get fried if your house is hit by lightning.

Consider backups to the cloud (in addition to the local external drive) as a secondary, not primary, solution.

The Product ID shown in the System dialog is never the same as the Product Key that you enter during installation. When you enter the product key and then activate Windows, Microsoft’s activation server knows what the key is good for — if it’s for an OEM installation, that’s all it’s good for.

…when I hover the mouse pointer over the button, the pop-up box says, “Installs updates and then shuts down your computer.” That’s what piques my curiosity. Why does Windows want to shut down after installing the updates? Won’t simply restarting accomplish the same end?

Yes, simply restarting will do exactly the same for the updates as would shutting down completely and then doing a cold start. You can ignore the button in the Windows Update window. Instead, go to the Start menu, click the arrow next to the Shut Down button, and click Restart.

As for “Why?”, the blog post quoted by BruceR sort of explains it. What isn’t said explicitly is that Microsoft often runs into a situation where there are two choices, one that will please some users and inconvenience others, and another that will switch those roles. They try to pick the choice that will please more people than it will inconvenience. But if you happen to be on the “wrong” side, and if MS hasn’t provided a customization path, then you’ll be unhappy. That’s the way the cookie crumbles…

Just to be sure: Do you know that the Equation Editor 3.0 is the “old” equation editor from Word 2003 and earlier, and that there is a newer equation editor that you may (or may not) find easier to use? To start an equation in the newer editor, press Alt and the = key together, or click Insert > Equation.

Another thing that may help is that the newer editor lets you save complete equations as building blocks that you can insert with a click, to re-use or to edit further. Right-click a completed equation and click Save as New Equation. Assign a name to it. When you click the down arrow of the Insert > Equation button, the building block will be somewhere on the dropdown (by default, at the bottom).

For summaries of monthly updates, look at the “What’s New” posts in the blog at http://blogs.office.com/b/office365tech/archive/tags/what_2700_s+new/default.aspx.

There’s no problem with the equation itself. The text paragraph that contains the equation is set to a line spacing of Exactly 10.9 pt, so that’s the most that can be displayed. Change the paragraph’s line spacing to Single or At Least, and the depth of the line will adjust to the size of the equation.

What do you have in mind when you say “an easy way to set up formulas/equations”? Are you looking for a one-click way to get into the equation editor, or do you have difficulty using the editor to create equations? If it’s the first, then put this macro in your Normal.dotm template along with a Quick Access Toolbar button to run the macro:

Code:

Sub EquationEditor()
    Selection.InlineShapes.AddOLEObject ClassType:=”Equation.3″
End Sub

Word 2007 is a special case, and the bug in it has not been fixed in any update.

In all other versions of Word, the location of the most recent edit is saved in the file as a bookmark named PrevSel1. The Shift+F5 shortcut just goes to that bookmark. The bug in Word 2007 is that the bookmark is not saved in the file.

A workaround to save a unique string in the text and then look for it when Shift+F5 is pressed would work, although you would also have to program the macro to remove the string. It would be better to insert a bookmark (you could name it PrevSel1, but the backslash isn’t valid for a bookmark name that you try to add via a macro or the Bookmark dialog) and have Shift+F5 search for that.

Get my email address from http://jay-freedman.info/contact/contact.htm. Use either of the two addresses posted there, they both wind up at the same place.

Thanks for the suggestion. Apparently it is something else entirely :confused: because it was set to Unicode (UTF-8), and the same box characters appear regardless of which encoding I choose.

The Office installer, like almost all Windows installers, uses the Windows Installer Service (msiexec.exe). You can set an entry in the registry that causes msiexec to write a verbose log file to the Temp folder. Instructions and a FixIt button are in the article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223300.

The log file, especially for an installation as big and complex as Office, will be many megabytes of nearly incomprehensible stuff. It’s plain text, though, and you can search it for the word Error (or for the exact text of the error message if you have it). Somewhere in the dozen or so entries before that will be clues to the exact cause of the failure.

If you want me or other folks here to investigate, post the log file on a public share on SkyDrive, DropBox, or the like and reply with the URL.

I do not know why they suggest this, but know that they do. It may be that they do not trust users to actually dig through the Add-Ins or that they are lazy.

I suspect that there are two factors involved: (a) There is an option to turn off the notifications, and that option needs to be documented. (b) The writer didn’t understand why it’s important to know when changes to Normal.dotm are about to be saved.

The notification was initially created because it could serve as a warning that a malicious macro (sometimes called a “virus”, although such macros wouldn’t generally be self-propagating) is at work. For a number of reasons, that sort of macro has become rare, at least compared to other kinds of malware. But the notification is still useful to warn of badly written add-ins and unintentional changes to the template’s styles and other bits. If it were up to me, the option to turn off the notification would be removed.

The unfortunate part is that Word gives no indication of what in Normal.dotm is changed. The MVPs have often requested the ability to report the nature of the changes — was a macro added, was a style modified, was text added, are there new building blocks or AutoCorrect entries, etc.? So far the suggestions have been ignored.

I have two Logitech M510 wireless mice, one for the desktop and one for the laptop. The laptop is a Toshiba Portege — the screen isn’t touch enabled, but the touchpad has a driver that makes it respond to the touch gestures (swipe, pinch, etc.). Well, it sometimes responds, and sometimes it screws up or does nothing. I hate that touchpad, and usually turn it off. The mouse is so much more precise and predictable.

I’m thinking of retiring the desktop, which is 5 years old, and just plugging the keyboard and monitor into the laptop. There’s one drawback to that: the desktop has dual 23″ monitors, and the laptop has only one external monitor port. I really don’t want to try working with one 23″ monitor and the 13″ laptop screen.

Although the setting is technically stored in the registry, it’s just one of many values lumped together into a huge binary entry named Settings in the key HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0WordData. As far as I know, the byte-level layout of the entry has never been published. It would be beyond difficult to change that one setting on every computer without messing up the rest of the settings.

A possible workaround would be to put the following macro into a template, and push out the template to be stored in each user’s WordStartup folder so it loads whenever Word starts:

Sub AutoExec()
Options.UpdateFieldsAtPrint = True
End Sub

After replacing the router, verify that the printer is assigned the same IP address as before. If not, you may be able to force the desired assignment through the router’s configuration screen, or you may have to modify the address used by the desktop and laptop.

This is not related to the gateway address issue, but only to the fact that different routers may use different algorithms to assign IP addresses to the attached devices.