You may have come across Character Map in Windows, which is useful for inserting characters not on the keyboard into documents. It's a fairly slow process, but there is a quicker way. If you know the character set code for the symbol you want you can type it in directly. Press and hold the Alt key then type the code on the numeric keypad.
Examples: Copyright symbol ©: Alt-0169, Registered symbol ®: Alt-0174, Trademark symbol ™: Alt-0153
(Windows Character Map shows the code in the bottom-right corner when you select a character.)

Switch windows using Alt-Tab. Hold down Alt and you can press Tab repeatedly to move through the programs and documents you have open.

Backup your data!  It's an issue that's existed for many years, but a lot of people still don't make backup copies of their important data. Then, when disaster strikes, and it WILL strike, they panic! Save the grief and back it up.

Organise your files. Don't just put them all in 'My Documents'. That might seem easiest initially, but when you've got thousands of them, finding a particular one can be a nightmare. Make folders under My Documents labelled by project, or type of work, or whatever is meaningful to you, and store the files there.

Use anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall software. There are some decent ones mentioned on the links page. Also, and this is an important point, keep them up to date. Virus writers and other odd characters are at it all the time and the anti-virus etc.writers work hard to keep up with them. If you don't keep up to date you are vulnerable. All those on the links page provide free on-line updates and it's all automatic so you don't need to do anything to make it happen.
Re. firewall, even if you have a hardware firewall device you till need a software firewall to prevent unauthorised outgoing traffic. If a virus or spyware slips through your defences it may start sending out spurious mail or linking back to it's home site. A firewall will see this and stop it.

The Windows XP Start menu has a selection that allows you to see up to ten of your most recently used documents, called "My Recent Documents". You can see a list of All of your most recently used documents by following these steps:

• Open 'My Computer' or Windows Explorer
• Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\ (under drive C: usually)
• Find the folder named 'My Recent Documents' in the right-hand window.
• Right-click that folder and, holding down the mouse button, drag the folder onto the Start button. Keeping the button pressed, wait for the Start menu to open then drag the folder to the top section of the Start menu and release the right mouse button.
• A popup menu will appear. Select the choice that says, 'Create Shortcut here'.
• When you open the Start menu and click on your new shortcut, a separate one-folder explorer window will open, showing all of the documents you have used recently.
• You can sort it by name, date etc. by clicking on the appropriate column heading. You can delete the items that you do not want on the list, and as they are just shortcuts the original files will not be touched.