All About Computers

Front 1

How do you clean up your Outlook calendar?

Back 1

There is a reported intermittent issue that may occur when you either open your calendar or attempt to access another individual or group calendar. You may experience a delay and receive a pop up message that says: "Outlook is trying to retrieve data from the Microsoft Exchange Server".

To improve performance when opening an Outlook calendar it is recommended that you refrain from using recurring meetings with no end date and delete calendar items that are no longer needed. A good practice is to review all recurring entries in late December and set up for the next year if necessary, with the end date set up for 12/31 of the next year.

An easy way to view your calendar and sort it to remove non needed items is to follow these steps:

Open your calendar or navigate to the calendar you want to delete past entries from


From the taskbar, click on View à Current View à All Appointments


Expand the columns to view Start and End dates (double click between the column headers to expand)


Sort calendar items by End date (click on the End column header)


Look for items that have an End date in the past. These items can be deleted. You can select several rows at the same time by holding down the shift key as you arrow up or down through the list. Once you've selected the items you want to delete press the Delete key to remove the entries from your calendar.


When all deletions are completed, empty the Deleted Items folder. From the taskbar, click on Tools à Empty "Deleted Items" Folder.


Once you have completed your calendar clean up you can change your calendar view back to the Day/Week/Month view by using clicking on View à Current View à Day/Week/Month from the taskbar. You can also select other views from this menu.

Front 2

What are some Windows Keyboard shortcuts?

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Keyboard shortcuts

Our first reader suggested tip comes from Albert Hopping who suggested that we publish a TechTip on common keyboard shortcuts. As Albert points you using these shortcuts can save you time and make you more productive. Thanks for the suggestion Albert!

Here are some lists of keyboard shortcuts from Microsoft. I've summarized the most common shortcuts below and added a few of my own that I use frequently.

Keyboard Assistance and Shortcuts for Microsoft Applications (big list of Microsoft applications with shortcuts for each)
Keyboard shortcuts for Windows
List of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows XP
Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows XP
Internet Explorer keyboard shortcuts
Tired of chasing your mouse? Use keyboard shortcuts
Save time with quick computer shortcuts


Windows system key combinations
F1: Help
CTRL+ESC: Open Start menu
ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs
ALT+F4: Quit program
SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently
Windows Logo+D: Toggles between showing the desktop and the running applications
Windows Logo+E: Start Windows Explorer
Windows Logo+L: Lock the computer (without using CTRL+ALT+DELETE)
Windows Logo+R: Start the Run dialog box
Windows Logo+M: Minimize all currently running applications
Windows program key combinations
CTRL+C: Copy
CTRL+X: Cut
CTRL+V: Paste
CTRL+Z: Undo
CTRL+B: Bold
CTRL+U: Underline
CTRL+I: Italic
General keyboard commands
F1: Starts Windows Help
F10: Activates menu bar options
SHIFT+F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object
CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)
CTRL+ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu)
CTRL+SHIFT+ESC: Opens Windows Task Manager
ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box
ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)
SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature
ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window's System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window)
ALT+- (ALT+hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window's System menu (from the MDI child window's System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the child window)
CTRL+TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program
ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu
ALT+F4: Closes the current window
CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window
ALT+F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window)
Windows Explorer shortcuts
For a selected object:
F2: Rename object
F3: Find all files
CTRL+X: Cut
CTRL+C: Copy
CTRL+V: Paste
SHIFT+DELETE: Delete selection immediately, without moving the item to the Recycle Bin
ALT+ENTER: Open the properties for the selected object

To copy a file
Press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the file to another folder.

To create a shortcut
Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder.