From the Tips Box: Windows 7 Screencasting, Quicksilver, and Recipes [From The Tips Box]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/mC3B4nX0lWk/

Readers offer their best tips for screencasting in Windows 7, using Quicksilver to launch applications in VMware, and organizing your personal recipes using a blog.

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About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.

Built-In Screencasting in Windows 7

Mark shows us a nice built-in feature of Windows 7:

I found if you just type "PSR" in the run box, the problem solution recorder pops up. It looks similar to the sound recorder, and when you press record, it captures key actions and saves them as an MHT in a zip file (I assume MHT is Media HyperText Markup Language, because it is all in one file).

Launching Windows Applications in VMware with Quicksilver

Photo by Ben Becker .

Joe shares a convenient tip on how to further Quicksilver's usefulness:

If you add

~/Documents/Virtual Machines/[name of the vm].vmwarevm/Applications

to the Quicksilver catalog you can index! all of the apps in your VMWare virtual machine and use Quicksilver from within the PC Virtual Machine or even launch PC apps from your Mac desktop even when the VM is not powered on (it will start VMware automatically)... Its faster than using the start menu!

Quick Log Off and Hibernate

David tells us how he closes down his computer quickly (without shutting down completely):

I came up with a very simple solution to a problem I've had, and I thought it might be something others would like to do as well. I've been looking for a way to easily log off of my account _and_ hibernate my Vista system in one step (I have work acct and a home acct, and I'd like to be able to hibernate at the end of the work day, but not still be logged on to my work acct...) I wrote (of all things) a two line batch file:

shutdown /l
shutdown /h

I named it LogoffHib.bat and saved it to a convenient place, then made a shortcut to it on my desktop, complete with Ctrl+Alt+End shortcut key, and Boom! I've searched for something like this for ages and never found anything, but I thought someone else in a similar situation might like it too.

Use a Blog to Keep Up with Recipes

Photo by Jennifer Dickert .

Sara-Elizabeth shares her favorite tool for recipe logging:

I know you've had lots of people suggesting ways to keep up with recipes, but I'd like to add my two cents. Borrowing on the idea of saving the recipes in Delicious, I then created a Blogspot account and pos! ted the individual recipes as entries (with photos uploaded to my personal web space and source noted). I can quickly find recipes based on certain criteria and I'm even able to link within recipes to other
recipes needed for the whole project.

Use Wax or Crayons to Keep Wood From Splitting

Photo by Chris Metcalf.

Stephen shares another way to keep wood from splitting:

Surprised that no one has mentioned wax, even a crayon, get it onto the nail and the nail drives about five times easier and much less chance of splitting, to boot.

And absolutely put wax onto a long screw that you're running into hard wood — you'll be amazed at the difference. Soap works also, wax is better IMO.