Changing your phones ring tone is easy and, well, you really should change it as the standard Windows Mobile ring tone is a little dull.

To change your ring tone:

Tap “Start”

Tap “Settings”

Tap “Phone”

In the phone tab, you can choose which tone you would like to use, and the option to have your phone vibrate or not.

To use your own tones, copy them into your “Windows\Rings” folder and then they will be added to the list.

You are able to use many different file-types for your ring tones such as wav and mp3 files. There is no reason why you cannot use your favourite song or create a ring tone of your own.

I have had problems with removing partnerships when I started toying with Windows Mobile Devices. It is clear from this sites search queries, that I am not the only one. It is easy once you get the hang of it. Here is a little of what I have learnt.

Once you remove a partnership, your device will not lose all its data. This will happen when you set up a new partnership later on, and then you will be asked if you would like to keep the data from your device, or your computer intact.

To remove a partnership, ensure that your device is no longer connected to your computer.

In ActiveSync:

Click “File”

Click “Delete Mobile Device”

You will be given a warning that you are doing something bad and then you will be asked if you want to delete the Synchronisation folder. I don’t delete it as I will use the same folder next time I try to create a partnership.

This is not something that has to be done very often, but there are some circumstances where it is required.

We have had tabbed browsing for a while now, and Microsoft definitely did not start off the craze, they just took it further. If you are using Internet Explorer 7, you get an extra button which lets you see your tabbed pages in thumbnail form. Microsoft loves their thumbnails since Vista and this is yet another example, along with their new taskbar and window switcher.

This is a very useful view if you have lots of tabs open at the same time. From this view you are able to close tabs, view previews or.. well that’s about it. Just click on the button next to your tabs, and check it out yourself.

Not identical but along the same vein is Thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer in Windows XP. Navigate through to your favorites in Explorer, click on the view button and select thumbnail view.

While pages aren’t updated as you navigate through them, and the fact that it takes forever to make the thumbnail, this is nice feature of Windows XP.

For many years now, Microsoft has released software to developers of Windows Mobile programs which will let you see your Devices screen on your desktop. Although it was designed for developers, it is available for free to everyone. This is another of Microsoft’s powertoys and it was released in 2003. Specifically we want to look at the Activesync Remote Display component. This works through ActiveSync via USB or Bluetooth, or without Activesync via WiFi.

With Activesync Remote Display, we could show our PDA screen on a laptop screen, then connect a projector for a presentation. We could play our devices games from our desktop or plan our next trip in our GPS software. We can use our keyboard and mouse to enter the data which is much faster than using our devices tiny keyboard, even with the minor delay in refreshing the display.

While these are mostly not very practical for everyday use, if we combine it with a few tricks from Inspect My Gadget and a bluetooth headset, you can choose to to leave your phone in the drawer and remain connected.

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When we buy our devices hot off the shelf, there are often a few bugs which were not discovered during the initial user testing phase. There are often some features that have not been fully implemented on our devices, probably because the manufacturer wanted to get the device on the market straight away, before it was really ready. As the weeks and months go on, the manufacturer releases firmware updates (software to run hardware) to fix these bugs and add some extra features.

Firmware upgrades are available for most types of hardware including Phones, Pocket PC’s, routers and motherboards just to name a few.

To see if your device can be upgraded, go to your manufacturer’s website and look at the support pages for your device. I have often found that some of the more annoying features of my devices were fixed after doing an upgrade. It is like you are giving your device a second life.

Take caution and do a little research before you do this as:

• Firmware upgrades can void your warranty.
• You will most likely lose all the data on your device (but if syncing with a PC this can easily be recovered).
• If you do it wrong, it is possible destroy your device.

Many manufacturers have made their firmware applications much more user friendly than they used to be because of these risks. They guide you through step by step and tell you whatNOT to do at each stage of the upgrade.

You may find that you can take your device to where you bought it from, or a service center to have your firmware upgraded. This is especially the case for Mobile Phones.

I don’t want to make the process sound too scary as this is a very good and worthwhile thing to do.