Microsoft Word - Automatically open the last document at launch

If you work with Word, here's a nice little trick that will allow you to automatically open the most recent document you worked on or viewed at the start of the program.

This will save you a few clicks to open the document you want next time.

First, create a shortcut to Word (WINWORD.EXE) on your desktop or in the taskbar. The executable should be located at (depending on the version of Word you use):

"C: \ Program Files \ Microsoft Office 15 \ Office15 \ WINWORD.EXE" or

"C: \ Program Files \ Microsoft Office \ Office"

Second, right-click the executable > Send to > Desktop (create shortcut).

Finally, right-click the shortcut and go into Properties. At the end of the Target: after the quotation marks, add the following:

/mfile1

It should look like this (here I'm using Office 15 so the winword.exe path might look different to you):

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\Office15\WINWORD.EXE" /mfile1

Fix: headset/headphones make a buzzing noise when plugged in the front panel

A buzzing/humming noise in your headset or headphones is most likely electromagnetic interference, meaning a "disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to either electromagnetic induction or electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source. The disturbance may interrupt, obstruct, or otherwise degrade or limit the effective performance of the circuit." - Wikipedia

I/O back panel of a motherboard

There are a few things you can do to solve this issue:

1. Plug-in your headset in the back panel jack of your computer. The front jack panel of a lot of computer cases are known to be badly isolated and are often prone to interference. The I/O back panel of your motherboard is far more likely to be better built and grounded. If your headset cable is not long enough to reach the back you might want to get an extension cord.

2. The cause can be bad drivers. Make sure you have updated sound card and headphone drivers. Check your sound card/headphones/headset vendor's website for the newest drivers.

3. Open up your computer (when it's totally shut down and disconnected from any source of power, of course) and make sure all your connections are properly separated and don't touch each other. Computer cable management is important to avoid any cable problems. See below for a computer with good cable management. You will notice how all the cables go through the back and are separate from each other:

Good cable management is essential

4. Open up your computer (when it's totally shut down and disconnected from any source of power) and disconnect your front panel and any other device making use of USB ports connected to the motherboard. Plug your computer back on and connect your headphones and see if the buzzing sound is still present. Continue to plug back in your USB devices and turning on and off your computer to find the culprit.

5. Another possible solution to the buzzing noise could be to get a new or separate sound card. If all of the above doesn't fix the buzzing noise, a component of your computer could be defective and will need to be replaced.

Turn Windows features on or off is empty/blank in Windows 7/Vista

If you ever uninstalled a program in Windows Vista or 7 from the Control Panel, you probably noticed the option “Turn Windows features on or off” in the left pane of the window. This option allows you, just like for any programs you installed, to install/uninstall Windows features such as games, the indexing service, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Center and several other system components.

However you might have encountered a problem when you clicked the option and were faced with this window:

Usually you would see a "Please wait..." while Windows loads the features but here nothing happens, even after several minutes. This is a known bug that Microsoft acknowledges in their knowledge base article 931712 and although their proposed methods for fixing this bug might work for some people, it didn't for me.

What fixed it was actually enabling a service I had accidentally disabled in one of my sessions of fiddling with my system. The service in question was Windows Modules Installer, also known as Trusted Installer or TrustedInstaller.exe.

Here is how you activate it:

1. Go to Start > Run... or simply press Windows + R to open up the Run prompt window.

2. Type services.msc and press OK to open up the Services manager.

3. In the window that opens up, look for a service named Windows Modules Installer.

4. Double-click it, or right-click and select Properties.

5. In the window that opens up, in "Startup type:" set it to Automatic.

6. Press OK or Apply to validate.

Reboot your computer, everything should work as intended now.