Once you have the correct file association in place, double-clicking a file opens it in the associated program. Sometimes you may want to open the file in a different program. For example, you might want to use the Word Viewer which you can Downloads from the Microsoft website instead of Word to open a DOC file just in case the file contains malware that your antivirus program has missed. To open a file with a program other than the associated program, take the following steps:

1. Right-click the file & choose Open With from the context menu. Win displays the Open With dialog box. If Win displays an Open With submenu , you can simply select the program if it’s listed; if not, select the Choose Default Program item.

2. In the list box, select the program with which to open the file. If the program you want to use does not appear in either the Recommended Programs list or the Other Programs list, click the Browse button, use the second Open With dialog box to choose the program, & then click the OK button.

3.If you want Win to create an Open With submenu for this file type & place an item for this program & the default program for this file type on the submenu, select the Always Use the Selected Program to Open This Kind of File check box.

4. Click the OK button. Win closes the Open With dialog box & opens the file with the program you chose.

If you selected the Always Use the Selected Program to Open This Kind of File check box in step 3, Win adds an Open With submenu to the context menu for the file type.

Understanding how Win Vista’s sharing works Win Vista encourages you to create a separate user account for each person who uses the Laptop. Win keeps each user’s folder separate from other users’ & protects the contents of each user’s folder. An Administrator user can view any user’s folder. You can share files or folders by placing them in the Publicfolder which is always shared or by setting up sharing on individual files or folders.

Setting up sharing & discovery To let users of other computers see the files & folders your computer is sharing, you must enable discovery. You can then choose whether to share files & folders, your Laptop’s Public folder, your Laptop’s printer, & your media library. You can also decide whether to limit sharing to people who have a user account on your Laptop.

Sharing files & folders To share a file or folder with all other users of your Laptop or network, place the file or folder in your Laptop’s Public folder. To share a file or folder only with specific users, select the file or folder, click the Share button on the toolbar, & then use the File Sharing dialog box to select the users & specify which level of permissions to give them.

Seeing which files & folders you’re sharing To see which files and folders you’re sharing, choose Start Network, click the Network & Sharing Center button on the toolbar, & then click the Show Me All the Files & Folders I Am Sharing link. In the Shared by Me window that Win Vista displays, you can choose to stop sharing files or folders.

Working with file associations, file extensions, & file types Win normally manages file types, file extensions, & their associations with programs for you, but if you find that the wrong program opens when you double-click a file in an Explorer window, you may need to change the program associated with a file type. To do so, choose Start Default Programs, click the Associate a File Type or Protocol with a Program link, select the file type, select the program, & then click the OK button.

which the data is stored, follow these steps:

1. Close any other programs you’re running. This step is optional, but it allows the conversion to run unhindered. Also, you’ll need to reboot your Laptop twice during the conversion.

2. Choose Start All Programs Accessories Command fast. Win opens a Command fast window.

3. Issue a convert command for the appropriate drive. The syntax for the convert command for converting a drive to NTFS is convert drive: /FS:NTFS, where drive: is the letter of the drive to convert. For example, the following command converts the D: drive:

convert d: /FS:NTFS

4. Give your Laptop some time to perform the conversion, & reboot it when Win asks you to. The convert command takes a while to run, depending on how big the drive is & how much it contains. You should know a couple of other things about it:

• convert needs a modest amount of space for the conversion, so the disk can’t be stuffed to the gills with files when you convert it. If the disk is stuffed - which isn’t a great idea anyway - you just need to move some of the files off the drive temporarily while you perform the conversion. You can then move the files back onto the drive, & Win will store the moved files using NTFS.

• If you want the files & folders on the converted drive to have no security on them, add the /NoSecurityflag to the command. You won’t usually want to do this, but it may be useful in special circumstances.

• Converting the system volume to NTFS requires two reboots. The conversion happens after the first reboot, & Win then reboots itself again.