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1. PC Safeguard
I rarely let anyone use my PC because I’m afraid he will mess it up, but it seems
Microsoft has been thinking at me and came with a solution. The PC Safeguard
doesn’t let anyone mess your PC settings, because after the user logs off, the
configurations are reset back to normal. Of course it will not restore the
configurations changed by you, but only the ones done by other users you define.
To use PC Safeguard, go to Control Panel -> User Accounts and create a new
account, then select “Set Up Pc Safeguard” and switch it on. Then you can stay
relaxed when others use your computer, because you won’t find anything
changed, including configurations, downloaded software, installed programs.
2. Screen Calibration
Fortunately, Windows 7 comes with a display calibration wizard that lets you
set up the screen brightness properly, so you won’t have any problems viewing
photos or text. The problem was that on one PC a photo could look sharp and
bright and on another it looks awful. Now the problem can be fixed by pressing
the Win key and then typing “DCCW”.
3. AppLocker
If you are usually sharing your computer with someone else, then you might want
to restrict their access to your applications, files or documents. Using the
AppLocker tool, you have a few options to do this by blocking other users to
access Executables, Windows Installers, Scripts, a specific publisher or path. You
can simply do this by pressing the Windows key then typing Gpedit.msc. Then
go to Computer Navigation -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings ->
Application Control Policies -> AppLocker. Right click on one of the options
( Executables, Installers, or Script ) and create a new rule. That should save you
from a lot of headaches.
4. Burn Images
Windows 7 will not show empty drives by default, so if you connect an empty
drive to your PC, don’t worry, just go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View and
uncheck “Hide empty drives in the computer folder”. This doesn’t seem like a
good idea and it should not be default setting, because it will be hard for
inexperienced users to figure it out. I bet a lot of users will return their newly
bought drive thinking it’s broken.
This new feature seems useful because sometimes it’s disturbing that windows
seems to float like crazy on the screen and it’s hard to attach them to one side of
it. Now this can easily be done using a keyboard shortcut. Press the Windows key
+ Left key to dock it to the left side of the screen.
6.1 Dock The Current Windows To The Right Side Of The Screen
Press the Windows key + Right key to dock it to the right side of the screen.
Press ALT + G
If you are like me, lazy and bored, then you will want to change the background
from time to time, wasting a lot of time. Now you don’t have to do this anymore,
because you can set up a slideshow. Right click on the desktop then go to
Personalize -> Desktop Background and hold the CTRL key while choosing the
images. Then you can choose the time intervals between images and opt to
display them randomly or in a row.
If you feel like the taskbar is using too much of your screen space, you can choose
to make the icons smaller. To do this, right-click on the Start button, then go to
Properties -> Taskbar and set it to “Use small icons”
11. Combine Taskbar Icons
When you have more windows or applications opened, the taskbar’s space might
not be enough for them all, so you need to combine them, just like you would in
Windows XP or Vista. To do this, right-click the Start button, then go to
Properties -> Taskbar and check “Combine when taskbar is full”.
If you are a more advanced user, you’ve heard already about Robocopy. Now it’s
included in Windows 7 and lets you perform multi-threaded copies from the
command line. You can choose the number of threads like this “/MT[:n], which
can be from 1 to 128.
The Quick Launch Toolbar in Windows XP and in Vista seems a very good
idea that you might miss when using Windows 7. Fortunately though, you can get
it back in a quick few steps. Right click the taskbar, go to Toolbar -> New
Toolbar and type “%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Quick Launch” into the folder box, then click Select Folder. To make it
look like it would in Windows Vista, right click the taskbar, uncheck “Lock the
Taskbar”, then right click the divider and uncheck “Show Title” and “Show
Text”. Then right click the taskbar and check “Show Small Icons” and you
should be done.
While in Windows Explorer, Press ALT + P and a preview should appear on the
right.
Press the Windows Key and the Plus Key to zoom in or Windows Key and the
Minus Key to zoom out. You can zoom anywhere on the desktop and you can
even configure your magnifier. You can choose to invert colors, follow the mouse
pointer, follow the keyboard focus, or the text insertion point.
18. Minimize Everything Except The Current Window
Windows 7 can tell you how much power your system uses or provide detailed
information about the power usage and issues caused by each application and
device. This way you can optimize the way your battery is used, making It last
longer. Press the Windows Key and type “POWERCFG –ENERGY –OUTPUT
<path\filename>”, and it will create a file called energy-report.html in the
folder specified by you, after observing your PC for 60 seconds.
Windows 7 lets you search for online resources, by adding a connector that be
downloaded for free. For instance, go to http://www.bizzntech.com/flickrsearch
and download the Flickr connector. After that, you should see the Flickr Search
in your searches folder and you will be able to do it directly from your desktop,
without needing to visit their website.
If you were looking for a faster way to access your videos, then Windows 7 has
the right answer for you. Right click the Start button, then go to Properties ->
Start Menu -> Customize and set the Videos to “Display as a link” and you’re
done, you will now find them in the Start Menu.
If you are using two or more monitors, then you might want to move the
Windows from one to another. There is a very simple way to do it. All you have
to do is press the Windows Key + Shift Key + Left or Right Key, depending on
what monitor you want to move it to.
There is an option to replace the “Shut Down” button with another action, if you
rarely shut down the computer, but you more often restart it or put it on sleep.
Right click the Start Button, go to Properties and choose the ‘Power Boot Action”
to do whatever you want, from the given options.
You can stretch the active window vertically to the maximum display height by
pressing the Windows + Shift + Up Keys. Press Windows + Down Keys if you
want to restore it.
Press Windows + 1 Keys to open a new instance of the first icon in the taskbar.
This could prove really useful in some circumstances.
Windows Action Center offers you important information about your PC, like the
Antivirus Status, updates, troubleshooting and provides a backup scheduling
feature. To access it, go to Control Panel -> System And Security -> Action
Center.
This platform can help you solve a lot of issues you may encounter, like the
internet connection, hardware devices, poor system performance and more. You
can choose what to troubleshoot and it will come with some possible explanations
for the problem that might really help you. There are a lot of options, guidance
and information available there, so give it a try by typing “troubleshoot” or “fix”
after pressing the Windows Key.
System notifications are usually disturbing and aren’t always useful, so you might
want to turn some of them off and. This can be done in Windows 7 by double
clicking the Notification Area Icons in Control panel. There you can change
notifications and icons for the Action Center, Network, Volume, Windows
Explorer, Media Center Tray Applet, Windows Update Automatic Updates.
32. Cycle Through The Open Programs Via The Taskbar’s Peek Menu
This works just like Alt + Tab, but opens the menu just above the sidebar, doesn’t
seem very useful. Give it a try by pressing The Windows Key + T.
You can easily run a program as an administrator by pressing Ctrl + Shift while
opening it.
If you have more instances of a program running, simply hold Ctrl while clicking
on its icon and it will cycle through all the instances.
You can now forget about the Right Click -> Auto arrange. All you have to do is
hold F5 pressed for a bit and the icons will auto arrange.
Encrypting an USB drive has never been easier. Now you can right click on the
removable drive and then on the “Turn on Bitlocker”.
If you don’t like Windows 7’s new features that arrange your windows
intelligently, there’s an easy way to turn it off. Press the Windows Key, type
“regedit”, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and set
WindowArrangementActive to 0. After you reboot your system the smart
arrangements will be turned off.
Windows 7 features a tool that lets you create a bootable System Repair Disc that
includes some system tools and the command prompt. To create it, press the
Windows Key and type “system repair disc”.
39. Hard-Link Migration Store
The Hard-Link Migration store is only available for new computers and can
migrate files, settings, and user accounts. The new Hard-Link Migration Store
uses more less disk spaces and takes less time.
The current Beta version of Windows 7 is all about feedback from its testers, but
if you feel disturbed by it, there is a way to turn it off. Press the Windows Key
and type ‘regedit’, then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop and set FeedbackToolEnabled to 0. After you restart the
computer, it shouldn’t be there anymore. Also, if you want to turn it on again, set
the FeedbackToolEnabled to 3.
Windows 7 opens all folders in the same process in order to save resources, but
this means if one folder crashes, they all crash. So if you feel like that’s a risk you
don’t have to take, then you have to open them all in their own processes. To do
this, hold down Shift, right-click the drive and “Open in New Process”. Now you
will be safe.
The Problem Step Recorder is a great tool that can be used in more
circumstances. You can turn it on by pressing the Windows Key, then typing
“PSR.exe” and click Record. Now it will record all your moves and save them as
a HTML document that you can view or write descriptions to it. This can help
you with troubleshooting or when writing a guidance or tutorial.
Unfortunately, Windows Media Player still isn’t able to play many audio and
video files, so you will still need some codecs. But with the free codecs pack you
can download here you shouldn’t have any problems.
If there are too many windows on the desktop, you can clear it by shaking a
window from left to right and all others will minimize. To restore the other
windows you have to shake the active one again.
Maybe you noticed that once you turn off UAC you can’t use the gadgets
anymore, as a security measure. But if you want to risk using them, there a
simple way to do it, even with UAC turned off. Press the Windows Key, type
‘regedit’, go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVers
ion\Sidebar\Settings and create a DWORD value named AllowElevatedProcess
and set its value to 1. Now you should be able to use your gadgets. If not, then
reboot your PC and you should be done.
48. Fix The Media Player & Media Center MP3 Bug
Both Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center come with a bug
that can damage your MP3s by filling missing metadata automatically on
imported MP3 files. This can cut a few seconds from the beginning of the tracks
and can prove really disturbing. This problem was fixed by Microsoft using the
fix that you can download here.
Windows 7 offers the possibility to search all file types, including unknown
ones and this could help you in some cases. Though it is not recommended,
because it’s much slower than normal search, you can give it a try by doing the
following: Launch Windows Explorer, go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View
and check “Try to search the content of unknown file types”. If you don’t need
it anymore, don’t forget to clear it for an increase in speed.
Windows 7 has not only brought gestures for those who use touchscreen devices,
but for mouse users too. So, instead of right-clicking a Taskbar icon to access the
jump list, you can hold left-click and drag upwards to smoothly call it up. In
addition, clicking and dragging down the address bar in Internet Explorer will
open the browsing history. There might be more gestures yet not discovered.
If you’ve already fixed the Windows Media Center, now you might think of ways
to improve your experience with it. The Media Center creates a list of favorite
songs based on how often you play them, your ratings and date you’ve added
them. If you aren’t comfortable with the way they thought it out, change the way
it sorts your favorites by going to Tasks -> Settings -> Music -> Favorite
Music.
Windows 7 holds and displays the recent search queries by default. This can often
prove to be irritating. No need to stress though because it can be disabled. Press
the Windows Key, type gpedit.msc, then go to User Configuration ->
Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer
and double click on “Turn off display of recent search entries”.
If you want Internet Explorer 8 to load faster, you need to disable the add-ons
that slow it down, so go to Tools -> Manage Add-ons and check the load time
for each one. You can choose for yourself the ones you can live without and ones
that would increase the load speed.
Windows 7 doesn’t seem to feature the sidebar anymore, but it still exists and
runs in the background, being launched automatically at startup. So if you want
to get rid of it, there are two ways. The easier one is to press the Windows Key,
type MSCONFIG.EXE, click the Startup tab and clear the Sidebar box. The
hard way is to press the Windows key, type “regedit”, find and delete the registry
key at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\R
un. This can save you some RAM consumed with no use.
Don’t you like that Windows 7 automatically reduces the volume when it detects
PC calls? You can turn off this feature by right-clicking the speaker icon in the
taskbar, go to Sounds -> Communications and get rid of it.
You can now create and manage virtual hard disks files in Windows 7 as if
they were real disks. This can allow you to use a live Windows installation on
the virtual disk without the need to boot the virtual Computer. To create a
virtual disk you have to press the Windows Key, right-click on Computer, then
go to Manage -> Disk Management -> Action -> Create VHD. There you can
specify the location and size of your virtual hard disk file.
To attach the virtual disk file, press the Windows Key, right-click Computer, then
go to Manage -> Disk Management -> Action -> Attach VHD and you have to
specify the location and if it’s read only or not.
There is no Lock Screen button in the Start Menu anymore, so you have to
press the Windows Key + L to lock it, now. It seems easier, in case you don’t
forget the shortkey.
In case you don’t like shortkeys or you keep forgetting them, there’s another
option for screen lock. Simply create a new shortcut to
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation and place it
wherever you want.
If you miss the old Run Command button in XP, then there’s an option to get it
back in Windows 7. Right-click an open area in Start Menu, go to Properties ->
Start Menu -> Customize and check “Run Command“. Now you should be
done.
Sometimes the animations for Desktop Window Manager don’t look very well
and aren’t smooth enough and this is cause because Desktop Window Manager
renders effects with no transparency and blurring, but you can turn off animations
for more pleasant graphics. Press the Windows Key, right-click on Computer, go
to Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Performance -> Settings and
clear “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing”. Click OK to
finnish.
66. Make 64bit Windows Media Player Default ( only for X64 users )
Windows comes with the 32bit version of Media Player by default. If you are a
x64 user, you can keep the system cleaner by only installing one set of codecs.
To do this, press the Windows Key, type “command”, right-click on Command
Prompt and hit “Run as administrator”, then type “unregmp2.exe
/SwapTo:64?. After that, press the Windows Key, type “regedit”, go to
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\wmplayer.exe\, double click on value and change “%ProgramFiles(x86)”
to “%ProgramFiles%”. Now you should be using the 64bit Windows Media
Player.
If you want to run more instances of the Windows Explorer just by hitting the
startbar, you can do it by following these steps: Unpin Windows Explorer from
the Taskbar, then press the Windows Key, go to Accessories, right-click
Windows Explorer, go to Properties and change the shortcut path to
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-
08002B30309D} ( if you want it to default to My Computer ) or %SystemRoot
%\explorer.exe /root,::{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5} ( if you
want it to default to Libraries ). Now repin Windows Explorer to your Taskbar
and you’re done. All that is required for opening more instances of it is just a
click of the middle mouse button. If you aren’t pleased with what you’ve done,
change the shortcut path back to %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe.
By default Windows 7 does show the time in 24 hour format, so if you want to get
the AM / PM symbols, press the Windows Key, type “intl.cpl” to open Regional
and Language Options, go to Addition Settings -> Time where Long Time is set
to HH:mm and change it to HH:mm tt, for example, where tt is the AM or PM
symbol ( 21:12 PM ). To change it to the 12 hour format, you need to type it
like this hh::mm tt ( 9:12 PM ).
If your websites don’t render correctly, you might need to enable Internet
Explorer 8 display them in compatibility view. This issue is because of the
updated rendering engine, which causes a lot of trouble. To do it, open Internet
Explorer, go to Tools -> Compatibility View Settings and check “Display all
websites in compatibility view”, then click Ok.
That’s it! There you go – 70 very useful tips and tricks for Microsoft Windows
7. Maybe you knew some of these but I’m sure there are some that you did not
heard of. They can prove very useful and can save you a lot of time while using
Windows 7. Enjoy!
I’m sure you’re asking yourself where’s the tip number 70? Ok, the tip or advice
that will help you work faster and more efficiently is:
Yes, this is very useful tip and it is strongly recommended so you better apply this
one…