A look at Windows 7's calculator

Did you know that Windows 7's calculator has been updated, and made more advanced? I sure didn't! Windows 7's calculator can now calculate mortgages, convert units, calculate fuel mileage, be a scientific calculator and statistics calculator with just 2 clicks.

To do this, open up the calculator. First click "View," then click one of the options. I'm going to show the "Mortgage" calculator located under the "Worksheets" tab. Let's say I purchased a house for $68,000, made a down payment of $3,000, and could pay it off over 15 years at an interest rate of 13%. I entered it in the appropriate boxes and hit calculate. I would pay $822.41 per month.

This calculator is much nicer than the ones used in earlier versions of Windows, and I hope you think so too.

Technical Terms of the Week

November 29 - December 3's terms are:

1. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - FAQ can be pronounced as "fak" or spelled out as F-A-Q. It is a page of a website that asks and answers common questions asked over time. FAQ's can be written on just about any topic on a website.

2. Domain - A domain contains a group of computers that can be accessed and administered with a common set of rules. It is also the web address of a website. For example: Hoogland's Computer Service's domain would be hooglandscomputer.com. It does not contain "http://" or "www."

3. End User - A person who uses software or hardware after it is fully developed. In other words, You! You are the end user of the computer you are currently using.

How to use two computers at once

Consider this: You just bought a new computer running Windows 7. Your old computer has all of your information and programs from the day you started using a computer. You don't know where the discs of all your programs are, and you have no idea how to transfer your information from computer to computer. Well, here's the solution. A virtual machine.

You're probably thinking, "What the heck is a virtual machine?" A virtual machine is a computer (operating system, like Windows XP) running within a computer (operating system, like Windows 7). How this works is your old computer makes a virtual image of itself (like a hard drive copying itself to your computer as a huge file of all your information). The virtual image will then run in a program called VMware, and it will allow you to use your old computer like you were sitting at it (but your on your new one). You can easily switch between computers, by minimizing the Virtual Machine, and then you can use the actual computer you are sitting at.

The setup process is fairly easy, and it's free for home users; businesses will have to pay a few bucks for it.

For more information on VMware, visit http://www.vmware.com/.