Sometimes a program just hangs up, and you can't get it to do anything. You can stop it by pressing the keys Ctrl+Alt+Esc at the same time, which changes the cursor into a white "x". Then all you have to do is click anywhere on the program screen and it will exit (press Esc again if you change your mind).

You can make your life a lot easier by putting on your desktop links to things you use a lot. Right-click the desktop in an empty area, click "Create New" and look at your choices at the bottom of the list: 1) Location (on the web or on your computer), 2) Application (most are in the /usr/bin directory), or 3) Device (just click on the item).

Using Opera as an example;
1) Left click on Kmenu (start) button.
2) Click Internet and find the entry for Web Browser (Opera).
3) Left click and hold on the Opera entry.
4) Drag it to your desktop, then drop it. In the small window that comes up, left click on 'Link Here'.
5) Left click on new Opera desktop icon, hold and drag it to the kicker panel, and drop it there.
6) Right click the new kicker icon, and in the window that comes up select 'move Opera button'. Slide the cursor to the right or left to where you want the button to be, then left click on the desktop.
7) You should now have a start button for Opera in the kicker, exactly where you want it.

If you sometimes use Konqueror file manager in SuperUser mode, change the default text colour to red. That way, you'll know at a glance if you're in regular mode (black text) or exercising SuperUser powers.
1 - Open Konq with SU powers: KMenu > System > File System > File Manager - Super User Mode
2 - On the Konqueror menu bar, chose Settings > Configure Konqueror
3 - In the Configure window, click Appearance, then in the right pane click the black swatch labeled Normal text color. Change it to a medium-bright red. Click Apply and OK. That should change all the file listings to a red font.
4 - Make it stick: Go to the menubar Settings again and click Save View Profile "File Management".
Done!

Interested in having the “filmstrip” view as an option within Konqueror so you can view photos? This can easily be added by doing the following:

1. Close any open Konqueror windows
2. Open Synaptic package manager by clicking KMenu > System > Synaptic Package Manager
3. Type in your root password when prompted
4. Click the Search icon and type "Gwenview"
5. Mark gwenview for installation and click Apply

Now when you re-launch Konqueror, you should now have a button that looks like a camera on your toolbar. Click this and Konqueror will enter filmstrip view mode, which shows image thumbnails on the left and a larger image on the right.

Sometimes you can't even see the titlebar of an application, so you are unable to move the application's screen. If you hold down the Alt key, then you can move the screen by clicking anywhere in it and dragging wherever you want.

For legal reasons, some types of Linux (like MEPIS) don't include certain software that allows one to play as many DVDs, or certain multimedia files, as they would like. If you are not from a part of the world where these software packages raise legal issues this can be rather irksome. If that sounds like you, then to enable extra multimedia playing capabilities:

• Open Synaptic Package Manager (Kmenu -> Settings)
• At the top of Synaptic, go to Settings -> Repos
• Place a check mark next to the repo as shown in the picture and click OK
• Click the "Reload" button at the top right corner of the screen
• View the new packages: on the right side on the bottom, click "Status" and then above the four buttons click "new in repository", or if time has elapsed since you enabled the multimedia repo, click "Not installed" to see all software (not just multimedia software) that isn't installed)
• Now look through the list and find software packages (such as w32codecs)

Feel free to ask around on the MepisLovers forums to find out just what you need.

If you like the wand feature in Opera for entering passwords for site logins, and want a similar Firefox functionality, get the Secure Login add-on. Like the wand, it automatically logs you in and takes you to the home page.