Problems using some of the features on Top-Windows-Tutorials.com? Fear not, help is at hand!

Problems with video playback

The videos hosted on Top-Windows-Tutorials.com use a technology called Flash, this is a great technology that allows us to put rich video content onto our site for everyone to see. In order to watch the videos on this site you need to install the Flash plug-in for your browser. Doing this is absolutely safe and secure and it will open up a whole new world of rich multimedia content for you on the web. Click here to read some technical information on Flash.

Because Flash content on the web is now so common, many users already have the plug-in installed without even knowing about it. However, if you experience problems viewing video files on this site, you may not have Flash installed. Fortunately, installing Flash is very easy. If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 we have prepared these two tutorials to guide you through the process of installing the required plug-ins:

Click here for Firefox instructions
Click here for Internet Explorer instructions
Click here for manual installation instructions. (For users of other browsers or any users experiencing problems with automatic installation).

If Flash Player is installed correctly, then video content will appear automatically on certain pages. In order to use the videos, you'll need to familiarise yourself with the video control panel shown below:-

The control panel is easy to use. The buttons perform the following functions:-

Start Frame - Goes to the beginning of the video presentation.

Frame Back - Move the video exactly one frame in reverse. Keep clicking this button to rewind the video or use the Seek control.

Play - Starts the video presentation. The video will not start playing until you click this button. When the video is playing, this button will change to pause. If you click pause, the video will stop at the current position.

Stop - Stops the video presentation and returns to the beginning.

Frame Advance - Move the video exactly one frame forward. Keep clicking this button to forward through the video or use the Seek control.

End Frame - Goes to the last frame of the video presentation.

Seek - The Seek control allows you to quickly move through the video. Drag the control to navigate through the video. Press Play to resume playback from the position you choose.

Help! The videos are too big to fit on my screen!

Top Windows Tutorials.com is designed to work on all monitors with a resolution of 1024x768 or greater. If your resolution is lower than this then you may need to manually scroll the page to see all of the video window. If you are struggling to see all of the video window, please turn off any sidebars you might be running in your web browser (in Firefox, choose the "View" menu and then go down to "Sidebar" and make sure everything is un-ticked). Still struggling to see the video? Press the F11 key to switch your browser into full screen mode. When you are done watching the video, press F11 again to switch back to the normal mode.

Screen Savers

You may have a screen saver enabled on your computer. A screen savers job is to blank your monitor after a period of inactivity in order to increase the life of your monitor and prevent static images being burned into the screen. The screen saver is less important these days as most modern computer monitors do not suffer from the problems of burn-in (unless perhaps, they are left showing the same picture for a period of several days).

If you are watching a longer video tutorial, your screen saver may activate thinking that because there is no keyboard or mouse activity you must have left your desk. Typically what happens then is the video you were watching disappears and is replaced with a screen full of stars, bouncing Windows logos or other animations, or perhaps blacked out completely, although the sound track will continue.

Because of this, you may wish to disable your screen saver while using our site. To do this, click here and follow this tutorial. Alternatively, simply move your mouse occasionally while watching a video to let your computer know you are still there.

What is RSS and how do I use it?

RSS is a technology that allows you to have live, automatically updated bookmarks directly in your favourite web browser, e-mail client or dedicated RSS reader. Unlike normal bookmarks, RSS feeds (also known as live bookmarks) update automatically as fresh content or news is added to a site. By subscribing to our RSS feed, you can always keep up to date with the latest information added to Top-Windows-Tutorials.com, without having to check the site every day. You'll never miss new tutorials or other valuable free content ever again!

You can subscribe to an RSS feed easily in Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox wherever you see this icon:-

(No, you can't subscribe using this icon, it is just an example!)

Popular e-mail clients such as Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird also support RSS. There are also dedicated RSS reader programs available, as well as countless desktop widgets and gadgets that support RSS reading.

If you are still unsure how to use RSS, we have prepared these handy tutorials to guide you through the process. Simply click on one of the links below to go to the relevant tutorial:-

How to subscribe to an RSS feed/Live Bookmark in Firefox
How to subscribe to an RSS feed/Live Bookmark in Internet Explorer 7
How to subscribe to an RSS feed in a dedicated RSS reader or other application

Still having problems?

If part of our website isn't working correctly for you and the above troubleshooting tips didn't help, we want to hear from you. Please contact us here. Be sure to let us know the address of the page you are having trouble with, as well as a detailed description of the problem and details of the web browser and operating system you are using.

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