Hello
Someone sent this across and I trust it may interest members.
Harish Kotian.
85 Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets

 1. Problem Steps Recorder

As the local PC guru you're probably very used to friends and family asking for 
help with their computer problems, yet having no idea how to clearly describe
what's going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels your pain, and Windows 7 
will include an excellent new solution in the Problem Steps Recorder.

When any app starts misbehaving under Windows 7 then all your friends need do 
is click Start, type PSR and press Enter, then click Start Record. If they
then work through whatever they're doing then the Problem Steps Recorder will 
record every click and keypress, take screen grabs, and package everything
up into a single zipped MHTML file when they're finished, ready for emailing to 
you. It's quick, easy and effective, and will save you hours of troubleshooting
time.

2. Burn images

Windows 7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had 
for years - the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it couldn't
be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose the drive with 
the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is created.

3. Create and mount VHD files

Microsoft's Virtual PC creates its virtual machine hard drives in VHD files, 
and Windows 7 can now mount these directly so you can access them in the host
system. Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter, then click Action > 
Attach VHD and choose the file you'd like to mount. It will then appear as
a virtual drive in Explorer and can be accessed, copied or written just like 
any other drive.

Click Action > Create VHD and you can now create a new virtual drive of your 
own (right-click it, select Initialise Disk, and after it's set up right-click
the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume to set this up). Again, 
you'll be left with a virtual drive that behaves just like any other, where
you can drag and drop files, install programs, test partitioning software or do 
whatever you like. But it's actually just this VHD file on your real hard
drive which you can easily back up or share with others. Right-click the disk 
(that's the left-hand label that says "Disk 2" or whatever) and select Detach
VHD to remove it.

The command line DISKPART utility has also been upgraded with tools to detach a 
VHD file, and an EXPAND command to increase a virtual disk's maximum size.
Don't play around with this unless you know what you're doing, though - it's 
all too easy to trash your system.

4. Troubleshoot problems

If some part of Windows 7 is behaving strangely, and you don't know why, then 
click Control Panel > Find and fix problems (or 'Troubleshooting') to access
the new troubleshooting packs. These are simple wizards that will resolve 
common problems, check your settings, clean up your system and more.

5. Startup repair

If you've downloaded Windows 7 (and even if you haven't) it's a good idea to 
create a system repair disc straight away in case you run into problems booting
the OS later on. Click Start > Maintenance > Create a System Repair Disc, and 
let Windows 7 build a bootable emergency disc. If the worst does happen then
it could be the only way to get your PC running again.

6. Take control

Tired of the kids installing dubious software or running applications you'd 
rather they left alone? AppLocker is a new Windows 7 feature that ensures users
can only run the programs you specify. Don't worry, that's easier to set up 
than it sounds: you can create a rule to allow everything signed by a particular
publisher, so choose Microsoft, say, and that one rule will let you run all 
signed Microsoft applications. Launch GPEDIT.MSC and go to Computer 
Configuration
> Windows Settings > Security Settings > Application Control Policies > 
> AppLocker to get a feel for how this works.

7. Calculate more

At first glance the Windows 7 calculator looks just like Vista's version, but 
explore the Mode menu and you'll see powerful new Statistics and Programmer
views. And if you're clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options 
menu instead. This offers many different unit conversions (length, weight,
volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two dates?), and 
spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle mileage, mortgage
rates and more.

Don't take any Windows 7 applet at face value, then - there are some very 
powerful new features hidden in the background. Be sure to explore every option
in all Windows applets to ensure you don't miss anything important.

Windows 7 calculator

CALCULATE MORE: The new Calculator is packed with useful features and 
functionality

8. Switch to a projector

Windows 7 now provides a standard way to switch your display from one monitor 
to another, or a projector - just press Win+P or run DisplaySwitch.exe and
choose your preferred display. (This will have no effect if you've only one 
display connected.)

9. Get a power efficiency report

If you have a laptop, you can use the efficiency calculator to get Windows 7 to 
generate loads of useful information about its power consumption. Used in
the right way, this can help you make huge gains in terms of battery life and 
performance. To do this you must open a command prompt as an administrator
by typing 'cmd' in Start Search, and when the cmd icon appears, right-click it 
and choose Run as administrator.

Then at the command line, just type in 'powercfg -energy' (without quotes) and 
hit Return, and Windows 7 will scan your system looking for ways to improve
power efficiency. It will then publish the results in an HTML file, usually in 
the System32 folder. Just follow the path it gives you to find your report.

10. Understanding System Restore

Using System Restore in previous versions of Windows has been something of a 
gamble. There's no way of telling which applications or drivers it might affect
- you just have to try it and see.

Windows 7 is different. Right-click Computer, select Properties > System 
Protection > System Restore > Next, and choose the restore point you'd like to
use. Click the new button to 'Scan for affected programs' and Windows will tell 
you which (if any) programs and drivers will be deleted or recovered by
selecting this restore point. (Read our full
Windows 7 System Restore tutorial.)

11. Set the time zone

System administrators will appreciate the new command line tzutil.exe utility, 
which lets you set a PC's time zone from scripts. If you wanted to set a
PC to Greenwich Mean Time, for instance, you'd use the command

tzutil /s "gmt standard time"

The command "tzutil /g" displays the current time zone, "tzutil /l" lists all 
possible time zones, and "tzutil /?" displays details on how the command works.


12. Calibrate your screen

The colours you see on your screen will vary depending on your monitor, 
graphics cards settings, lighting and more, yet most people use the same default
Windows colour profile. And that means a digital photo you think looks perfect 
might appear very poor to everybody else. Fortunately Windows 7 now provides
a Display Colour Calibration Wizard that helps you properly set up your 
brightness, contrast and colour settings, and a ClearType tuner to ensure text
is crisp and sharp. Click Start, type DCCW and press Enter to give it a try.

13. Clean up Live Essentials

Installing Windows Live Essentials will get you the new versions of Mail, Movie 
Maker, Photo Gallery and others - great. Unfortunately it also includes
other components that may be unnecessary, but if you like to keep a clean 
system then these can be quickly removed.

If you left the default "Set your search provider" option selected during 
installation, for instance, Windows Live will install Choice Guard, a tool to
set your browser home page and search engine, and prevent other programs from 
changing them. If this causes problems later, or you just decide you don't
need it, then Choice Guard may be removed by clicking Start, typing msiexec /x 
and pressing [Enter].

Windows Live Essentials also adds an ActiveX Control to help upload your files 
to Windows Live SkyDrive, as well as the Windows Live Sign-in Assistant,
which makes it easier to manage and switch between multiple Windows Live 
accounts. If you're sure you'll never need either then remove them with the 
Control
Panel "Uninstall a Program" applet.

14. Add network support

By default Windows Live MovieMaker won't let you import files over a network, 
but a quick Registry tweak will change this. Run REGEDIT, browse to 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
Live\Movie Maker, add a DWORD value called AllowNetworkFiles and set it to 1 to 
add network support.

15. Activate XP mode

If you've old but important software that no longer runs under Windows 7, then 
you could try using
XP Mode,
a virtual copy of XP that runs in a window on your Windows 7 desktop. But 
there's a big potential problem, as XP Mode only works with systems that have
hardware virtualisation (AMD-V or Intel VT) built-in and turned on. If you've a 
compatible CPU then this may just be a matter of enabling the option in
your BIOS set-up program, however some high profile brands, including Sony 
Vaio, disable the setting for "security reasons". And that blocks XP Mode from
working, too.

One solution has emerged, but it's a little risky, as essentially you'll have 
to alter a byte in your laptop firmware and hope this doesn't have any 
unexpected
side-effects. Gulp. If you're feeling brave then take a look at the
Feature Enable Blog
 for the details, but don't blame us if it goes wrong.

A safer approach might be to use
VirtualBox,
a virtualisation tool that doesn't insist on hardware support, but then you 
will need to find a licensed copy of XP (or whatever other Windows version
your software requires) for its virtual machine.

16. Enable virtual Wi-Fi

Windows 7 includes a little-known new feature called Virtual Wi-Fi, which 
effectively turns your PC or laptop into a software-based router. Any other 
Wi-Fi-enabled
devices within range - a desktop, laptop, an iPod perhaps - will "see" you as a 
new network and, once logged on, immediately be able to share your internet
connection.

This will only work if your wireless adapter driver supports it, though, and 
not all do. Check with your adapter manufacturer and make sure you've installed
the very latest drivers to give you the best chance.

Once you have driver support then the easiest approach is to get a network tool 
that can set up virtual Wi-Fi for you.
Virtual Router
 (below) is free, easy to use and should have you sharing your internet 
connection very quickly.

Virtual router

If you don't mind working with the command line, though, maybe setting up some 
batch files or scripts, then it's not that difficult to set this up manually.
See
Turn your Windows 7 laptop into a wireless hotspot
 for more.

17. Recover locked-up apps

If an application locks up under a previous version of Windows then there was 
nothing you could do about it. A new Windows 7 option, however, can not only
explain the problem, but may get your program working again without any loss of 
data.

When the lockup occurs, click Start, type RESMON and click the RESMON.EXE link 
to launch the Resource Monitor.

Find your frozen process in the CPU pane (it should be highlighted in red), 
right-click it and select Analyze Wait Chain.

If you see at least two processes in the list, then the lowest, at the end of 
the tree, is the one holding up your program. If it's not a vital Windows
component, or anything else critical, then save any work in other open 
applications, check the box next to this process, click End Process, and your 
locked-up
program will often spring back to life.

Waitchain

18. Fault-Tolerant Help

Windows 7 includes a new feature called the Fault Tolerant Help (FTH), a clever 
technology that looks out for unstable processes, detects those that may
be crashing due to memory issues, and applies several real-time fixes to try 
and help. If these work, that's fine - if not, the fixes will be undone and
they won't be applied to that process again.

While this is very good in theory, it can leave you confused as some 
applications crash, then start working (sometimes) for no apparent reason. So 
if you'd
like to check if the FTH is running on your PC, launch REGEDIT, and go to 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\FTH - any program currently being 
protected
by the FTH will be listed in the State key.

Experienced users may also try tweaking the FTH settings to catch more 
problems, and perhaps improve system stability. A post on Microsoft's Ask The 
Performance
Team blog (bit.ly/d1JStu) explains what the various FTH Registry keys mean.

19. Automatically switch your default printer

Windows 7's location-aware printing allows the operating system to 
automatically switch your default printer as you move from one network to 
another.

To set this up, first click Start, type Devices, and click the Devices and 
Printers link.

Select a printer and click Manage Default Printers (this is only visible on a 
mobile device, like a laptop - you won't see it on a PC).

Choose the "Change my default printer when I change networks" option, select a 
network, the default printer you'd like to use, and click Add.

Repeat the process for other networks available, and pick a default printer for 
each one.

And now, as you connect to a new network, Windows 7 will check this list and 
set the default printer to the one that you've defined.

20. Explore God Mode

Windows 7 has changed Control Panel a little, but it's still too difficult to 
locate all the applets and options that you might need. God Mode, however,
while not being particularly godlike, does offer an easier way to access 
everything you could want from a single folder.

To try this out, create a new folder and rename it to:

Windows 7 god mode

The first part, "Everything" will be the folder name, and can be whatever you 
want: "Super Control Panel", "Advanced", "God Mode" if you prefer.

The extension, ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C, must be entered exactly as 
it is here, though, including the curly brackets. When you press [Enter]
this part of the name will disappear, and double-clicking the new folder will 
display shortcuts to functions in the Action Centre, the Network and Sharing
Centre, Power options, troubleshooting tools, user accounts and others - more 
than 260 options in total.

Windows 7 god mode

21. Right-click everything

At first glance Windows 7 bears a striking resemblance to Vista, but there's an 
easy way to begin spotting the differences - just right-click things.

Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you'll find a menu 
entry to set your screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the display
settings any more.

Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system 
folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more.

And if you don't plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won't want 
its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right-click the icon, select
'Unpin this program from the taskbar', then go install Firefox, instead.

22. Display the old taskbar button context menu

Right-click a taskbar button, though, and you'll now see its jumplist menu. 
That's a useful new feature, but not much help if you want to access the 
minimize,
maximize, or move options that used to be available. Fortunately there's an 
easy way to get the old context menu back - just hold down Ctrl and Shift as
you right-click the taskbar button.

23. Desktop slideshow

Windows 7 comes with some very attractive new wallpapers, and it's not always 
easy to decide which one you like the best. So why not let choose a few, and
let Windows display them all in a desktop slideshow? Right-click an empty part 
of the desktop, select Personalise > Desktop Background, then hold down
Ctrl as you click on the images you like. Choose how often you'd like the 
images to be changed (anything from daily to once every 10 seconds), select 
Shuffle
if you'd like the backgrounds to appear in a random order, then click Save 
Changes and enjoy the show.

Windows 7 desktop slideshow

DESKTOP SLIDESHOW: Select multiple background images and Windows will cycle 
through them

24. RSS-powered wallpaper

And if a slideshow based on your standard wallpaper isn't enough, then you can 
always create a theme that extracts images from an RSS feed. For example,
Long Zheng has created
a few sample themes
 to illustrate how it works. Jamie Thompson
takes this even further,
with a theme that always displays the latest BBC news and weather on your 
desktop. And
MakeUseOf
 have a quick and easy tutorial showing how RSS can get you those gorgeous Bing 
photographs as your wallpaper. Or you can watch our
custom theme video tutorial.

25. Customise the log-on screen

Changing the Windows log-on screen used to involve some complicated and 
potentially dangerous hacks, but not any more - Windows 7 makes it easy.

First, browse to 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
 in REGEDIT, double-click the DWORD key called
OEMBackground (not there? Create it) and set its value to 1.

Now find a background image you'd like to use. Make sure it's less than 256KB 
in size, and matches the aspect ratio of your screen as it'll be stretched
to fit.

Next, copy that image into the %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds folder 
(create the info\backgrounds folders if they don't exist). Rename the image
to backgroundDefault.jpg, reboot, and you should now have a custom log-on image.

Alternatively, use a free tweaking tool to handle everything for you.
Logon Changer
 displays a preview so you can see how the log-on screen will look without 
rebooting, while the
Logon Screen Rotator
 accepts multiple images and will display a different one every time you log on.

26. Recover screen space

The new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can hold 
whatever program shortcuts you like (just right-click one and select Pin To
Taskbar). And that's fine, except it does consume a little more screen real 
estate than we'd like. Shrink it to a more manageable size by right-clicking
the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar > Use small icons > OK.

27. Enjoy a retro taskbar

Windows 7 now combines taskbar buttons in a way that saves space, but also 
makes it more difficult to tell at a glance whether an icon represents a running
application or a shortcut. If you prefer a more traditional approach, then 
right-click the taskbar, select Properties, and set Taskbar Buttons to "Combine
when taskbar is full". You'll now get a clear and separate button for each 
running application, making them much easier to identify.

28. Remove taskbar buttons

One problem with the previous tip is the buttons will gobble up valuable 
taskbar real estate, but you can reduce the impact of this by removing their 
text
captions. Launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control 
Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics, add a string called MinWidth, set it to 54, and 
reboot to see
the results.

29. Restore the Quick Launch Toolbar

If you're unhappy with the new taskbar, even after shrinking it, then it only 
takes a moment to restore the old Quick Launch Toolbar.

Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars > New Toolbar, type 
"%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" (less 
the quotes)
into the Folder box and click Select Folder.

Now right-click the taskbar, clear 'Lock the taskbar', and you should see the 
Quick Launch toolbar, probably to the right. Right-click its divider, clear
Show Text and Show Title to minimise the space it takes up. Complete the job by 
right-clicking the bar and selecting View > Small Icons for the true retro
look.

30. Custom power switch

By default, Windows 7 displays a plain text 'Shut down' button on the Start 
menu, but it only takes a moment to change this action to something else. If
you reboot your PC a few times every day then that might make more sense as a 
default action: right-click the Start orb, select Properties and set the
'Power boot action' to 'Restart' to make it happen.

31. Auto arrange your desktop

If your Windows 7 desktop has icons scattered everywhere then you could 
right-click it and select View > Auto arrange, just as in Vista. But a simpler 
solution
is just to press and hold down F5, and Windows will automatically arrange its 
icons for you.

32. Disable smart window arrangement

Windows 7 features interesting new ways to intelligently arrange your windows, 
so that (for example) if you drag a window to the top of the screen then
it will maximise. We like the new system, but if you find it distracting then 
it's easily disabled. Run REGEDIT, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control 
Panel\Desktop,
set WindowArrangementActive to 0, reboot, and your windows will behave just as 
they always did.

33. Browse your tasks

If you prefer the keyboard over the mouse, you will love browsing the taskbar 
using this nifty shortcut. Press Windows and T, and you move the focus to
the left-most icon on the taskbar. Then use your arrow keys to change the focus 
to other icons, and you get a live preview of every window.

34. Display your drives

Click Computer in Windows 7 and you might see a strange lack of drives, but 
don't panic, it's just Microsoft trying to be helpful: drives like memory card
readers are no longer displayed if they're empty. We think it's an improvement, 
but if you disagree then it's easy to get your empty drives back. Launch
Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear 'Hide empty drives in 
the computer folder'.

35. See more detail

The new and improved Windows 7 magnifier offers a much easier way to zoom in on 
any area of the screen. Launch it and you can now define a scale factor
and docking position, and once activated it can track your keyboard focus 
around the screen. Press Tab as you move around a dialog box, say, and it'll
automatically zoom in on the currently active control.

36. Extend your jumplists

By default a jumplist will display up to 10 items, but it can often be useful 
to extend this and add a few more. Right-click Start, select Properties >
Customize and set "Number of recent items to display in Jump Lists" to the 
figure you need.

37. Disable Aero Peek

Hover your mouse cursor over the bottom right hand corner of the screen and 
Windows 7 will hide open windows, showing you the desktop. Seems like a good
idea to us, but if the feature gets in your way then it's easy to turn off. 
Simply right-click the Start orb, select Properties > Taskbar and clear the
"Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop" box.

38. Pin a drive to the taskbar

The taskbar isn't just for apps and documents. With just a few seconds work you 
can pin drive icons there, too.

Right-click an empty part of the desktop, select New > Text File, and rename 
the file to drive.exe. Drag and drop this onto your taskbar, then delete the
original file.

Right-click your new "drive.exe" taskbar button, then right-click its file name 
and select Properties. Change the contents of both the Target and Start
In boxes to point at the drive or folder of your choice, perhaps click Change 
Icon to choose an appropriate drive icon, and you're done - that drive or
folder is now available at a click.

DriveC

39. Expand your taskbar previews

Move your mouse cursor over a Windows 7 taskbar button and you'll see a small 
preview of the application window. To make this larger, launch REGEDIT, browse
to 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband, 
right-click in the right hand pane and create a new DWORD value called
MinThumbSizePx. Double-click this, choose the Decimal option, set the value to 
350 and reboot to see the results. Tweak the value again to fine-tune the
results, or delete it to return to the default thumbnail size.

Preview

Next Page:
Useful Windows 7 enhancements




40. Hiding the Windows Live Messenger icon

If you use Windows Live Messenger a lot, you'll have noticed that the icon now 
resides on the taskbar, where you can easily change status and quickly send
an IM to someone. If you prefer to keep Windows Live Messenger in the system 
tray, where it's been for previous releases, just close Windows Live Messenger,
edit the shortcut properties and set the application to run in Windows Vista 
compatibility mode.

41. Customise UAC

Windows Vista's User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor 
implementation put many people off - it raised far too many alerts. Fortunately
Windows 7 displays less warnings by default, and lets you further fine-tune UAC 
to suit your preferred balance between security and a pop-up free life
(Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Control Settings).

42. Use Sticky Notes

The Sticky Notes app is both simpler and more useful in Windows 7. Launch 
StikyNot.exe and you can type notes at the keyboard; right-click a note to 
change
its colour; click the + sign on the note title bar to add another note; and 
click a note and press Alt + 4 to close the note windows (your notes are 
automatically
saved).

43. Open folder in new process

By default Windows 7 opens folders in the same process. This saves system 
resources, but means one folder crash can bring down the entire shell. If your
system seems unstable, or you're doing something in Explorer that regularly 
seems to causes crashes, then open Computer, hold down Shift, right-click on
your drive and select Open in New Process. The folder will now be launched in a 
separate process, and so a crash is less likely to affect anything else.

44. Watch more videos

Windows Media Player 12 is a powerful program, but it still won't play all the 
audio and video files you'll find online. Fortunately the first freeware
Windows 7 codecs package [shark007.net/win7codecs.html] has been released, and 
installing it could get your troublesome multimedia files playing again.

45. Preview fonts

Open the Fonts window in Windows XP and Vista and you'll see the font names, 
probably with icons to tell you whether they're TrueType or OpenType, but that's
about it. Windows 7 sees some useful font-related improvements.

Open the new fonts window and you'll find a little preview for every font, 
giving you a quick idea of how they're going to look.

The tedium of scrolling through multiple entries for each family, like Times 
New Roman, Times New Roman Bold, Times New Roman Bold Italic and so on, has
finally ended. There's now just a single entry for each font (though you can 
still see all other members of the family).

And there's a new OpenType font, Gabriola, added to the mix. It's an attractive 
script font, well worth a try the next time you need a stylish document
that stands out from the crowd.

46. Restore your gadgets

Windows 7 has tightened up its security by refusing to run gadgets if UAC has 
been turned off, so limiting the damage malicious unsigned gadgets can do
to your system. If you've disabled UAC, miss your gadgets and are happy to 
accept the security risk, though, there's an easy Registry way to get everything
back to normal. Run REGEDIT, go to 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Sidebar\Settings, 
create a new DWORD value called AllowElevatedProcess
and set it to 1. Your gadgets should start working again right away.

47. New WordPad formats

By default WordPad will save documents in Rich Text Format, just as before. But 
browse the Save As Format list and you'll see you can also save (or open,
actually) files in the Office 2007 .docx or OpenDocument .odt formats.

48. Protect your data

USB flash drives are convenient, portable, and very easy to lose. Which is a 
problem, especially if they're carrying sensitive data. Fortunately Windows
7 has the solution: encrypt your documents with an extension of Microsoft's 
BitLocker technology, and only someone with the password will be able to access
it. Right-click your USB flash drive, select Turn on BitLocker and follow the 
instructions to protect your private files.

Bitlocker

PROTECT YOUR DATA: Your USB flash drives can easily be encrypted with BitLocker

49. Minimise quickly with shake

If you have multiple windows open on your desktop and things are getting too 
cluttered, it used to be a time-consuming process to close them all down. In
Windows 7 you can use the Aero Shake feature to minimise everything in seconds, 
using a cool mouse gesture. Grab the title bar of the window you wish to
keep open and give it a shake, and rejoice in a clear desktop area.

50. Configure your favourite music

The Windows 7 Media Centre now comes with an option to play your favourite 
music, which by default creates a changing list of songs based on your ratings,
how often you play them, and when they were added (it's assumed you'll prefer 
songs you've added in the last 30 days). If this doesn't work then you can
tweak how Media Centre decides what a "favourite" tune is- click Tasks > 
Settings > Music > Favourite Music and configure the program to suit your needs.

51. Customise System Restore

There was very little you could do to configure System Restore in Vista, but 
Windows 7 improves the situation with a couple of useful setup options.

Click the Start orb, right-click Computer and select Properties > System 
Protection > Configure, and set the Max Usage value to a size that suits your 
needs
(larger to hold more restore points, smaller to save disk space).

And if you don't need System Restore to save Windows settings then choose the 
"Only restore previous versions of files" option. Windows 7 won't back up
your Registry, which means you'll squeeze more restore points and file backups 
into the available disk space. System Restore is much less likely to get
an unbootable PC working again, though, so use this trick at your own risk.

52. Run As

Hold down Shift, right-click any program shortcut, and you'll see an option to 
run the program as a different user, handy if you're logged in to the kids'
limited account and need to run something with higher privileges. This isn't 
really a new feature - Windows XP had a Run As option that did the same thing
- but Microsoft stripped it out of Vista, so it's good to see it's had a change 
of heart.

53. Search privacy

By default Windows 7 will remember your PC search queries, and display the most 
recent examples when searching in Windows Explorer. If you're sharing a
PC and don't want everyone to see your searches, then launch GPEDIT.MSC, go to 
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows
Explorer, double-click "Turn off display of recent search entries..." and click 
Enabled > OK.

54. Tweak PC volume

By default Windows 7 will now automatically reduce the volume of your PC's 
sounds whenever it detects you're making or receiving PC-based phone calls. If
this proves annoying (or maybe you'd like it to turn off other sounds 
altogether) then you can easily change the settings accordingly. Just 
right-click
the speaker icon in your taskbar, select Sounds > Communications, and tell 
Windows what you'd like it to do.

55. Rearrange the system tray

With Windows 7 we finally see system tray icons behave in a similar way to 
everything else on the taskbar. So if you want to rearrange them, then go right
ahead, just drag and drop them into the order you like. You can even move 
important icons outside of the tray, drop them onto the desktop, then put them
back when you no longer need to keep an eye on them.

56. Extend your battery life

Windows 7 includes new power options that will help to improve your notebook's 
battery life. To see them, click Start, type Power Options and click the
Power Options link, then click Change Plan Settings for your current plan and 
select Change Advanced Settings. Expand Multimedia Settings, for instance,
and you'll see a new "playing video" setting that can be set to optimise power 
savings rather than performance. Browse through the other settings and ensure
they're set up to suit your needs.

57. Write crash dump files

Windows 7 won't create memory.dmp crash files if you've less than 25GB of free 
hard drive space, annoying if you've installed the Windows debugging tools
and want to diagnose your crashes. You can turn this feature off, though: 
browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl, 
create
a new DWORD value called AlwaysKeepMemoryDump, set it to 1, and the crash dump 
file will now always be saved.

58. Protect your data

If you have confidential files in a particular folder or two, and would like to 
keep them away from other network users, then right-click the folder, select
Share With > Nobody, and they'll be made private, for your eyes only (or your 
user account, anyway).

59. Reorganise the taskbar

Windows 7 taskbar buttons are now movable - feel free to drag, drop and 
otherwise reorganise them to suit your needs. And then remember that each button
can be launched by holding with the Windows key and pressing 1 to activate the 
first, 2 the second and so on, up to 0 for the tenth.

60. Repair your PC

If Windows 7 won't start, you may not need an installation or repair disc any 
more, as the repair environment is now usually installed on your hard drive.
Press [F8] as your PC starts, and if you see a "Repair Your Computer" option, 
choose that to see the full range of Windows 7 recovery tools.

Recovery

61. ReadyBoost revamped

If you were unimpressed by ReadyBoost in Vista, it may be worth trying the 
technology again under Windows 7. The operating system now allows you to combine
multiple USB drives, each with larger caches, to deliver an extra speed boost.

62. Fixing Windows 7 N

If you have Windows 7 N then this means you'll be missing key multimedia 
applications, like Media Player, Media Centre, DVD Maker and more. But that's 
not
all. You also won't have some of the subsystems required by third-party apps 
like Nero MultiMedia Suite, which means that even if they install, you could
have problems getting them to work correctly.

Fortunately there's an easy fix, though, as the missing components are 
available in the form of Microsoft's Windows Media Pack. If you're currently 
having
media-related issues on a Windows 7 N installation, grab your copy from
support.microsoft.com/kb/968211.





63. Find bottlenecks

>From what we've seen so far Windows 7 is already performing better than Vista, 
>but if your PC seems sluggish then it's now much easier to uncover the 
>bottleneck.
Click Start, type RESMON and press Enter to launch the Resource Monitor, then 
click the CPU, Memory, Disk or Network tabs. Windows 7 will immediately show
which processes are hogging the most system resources.

The CPU view is particularly useful, and provides something like a more 
powerful version of Task Manager. If a program has locked up, for example, then
right-click its name in the list and select Analyze Process. Windows will then 
try to tell you why it's hanging - the program might be waiting for another
process, perhaps - which could give you the information you need to fix the 
problem.

Resource monitor

FIND BOTTLENECKS: Resource monitor keeps a careful eye on exactly how your PC 
is being used

64. Keyboard shortcuts

Windows 7 supports several useful new keyboard shortcuts.

Alt+P
Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane

Windows Logo+G
Display gadgets in front of other windows

Windows Logo++ (plus key)
Zoom in, where appropriate

Windows Logo+- (minus key)
Zoom out, where appropriate

Windows Logo+Up
Maximise the current window

Windows Logo+Down
Minimise the current window

Windows Logo+Left
Snap to the left hand side of the screen

Windows Logo+Right
Snap to the right hand side of the screen

Windows Logo+Home
Minimise/ restore everything except the current window

65. Drag and drop to the command line

When working at the command line you'll often need to access files, which 
usually means typing lengthy paths and hoping you've got them right. But Windows
7 offers an easier way. Simply drag and drop the file onto your command window 
and the full path will appear, complete with quotes and ready to be used.

This feature isn't entirely new: you could do this in Windows XP, too, but drag 
and drop support disappeared in Vista. There does seem to be a new Windows
7 complication, though, in that it only seems to work when you open the command 
prompt as a regular user. Run cmd.exe as an administrator and, while it
accepts dropped files, the path doesn't appear.

66. Customise your jumplists

Right-click an icon on your taskbar, perhaps Notepad, and you'll see a jumplist 
menu that provides easy access to the documents you've been working on recently.
But maybe there's another document that you'd like to be always available? Then 
drag and drop it onto the taskbar icon, and it'll be pinned to the top
of the jumplist for easier access. Click the pin to the right of the file name, 
or right-click it and select "Unpin from this list" when you need to remove
it.

67. Faster program launches

If you've launched one instance of a program but want to start another, then 
don't work your way back through the Start menu. It's much quicker to just
hold down Shift and click on the program's icon (or middle-click it), and 
Windows 7 will start a new instance for you.

68. Speedy video access

Want faster access to your Videos folder? Windows 7 now lets you add it to the 
Start menu. Just right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Start Menu
> Customize, and set the Videos option to "Display as a link". If you've a TV 
> tuner that works with Windows 7 then you'll appreciate the new option to
display the Recorded TV folder on the Start menu, too.

69. Run web searches

The Windows 7 search tool can now be easily extended to search online 
resources, just as long as someone creates an appropriate search connector. To 
add
Flickr support, say, visit
I Started Something,
click Download the Connector, choose the Open option and watch as it's 
downloaded (the file is tiny, it'll only take a moment). A "Flickr Search" 
option
will be added to your Searches folder, and you'll be able to search images from 
your desktop.

A multitude of other ready-made searches, such as Google and YouTube, can be 
downloaded from the
windowsclub.com
 website.

70. Schedule Media Centre downloads

You can now tell Windows Media Centre to download data at a specific time, 
perhaps overnight, a useful way to prevent it sapping your bandwidth for the
rest of the day. Launch Media Centre, go to Tasks > Settings > General > 
Automatic Download Options, and set the download start and stop times that you'd
like it to use.

71. Multi-threaded Robocopies

Anyone who's ever used the excellent command-line robocopy tool will appreciate 
the new switches introduced with Windows 7. Our favourite, /MT, can improve
speed by carrying out multi-threaded copies with the number of threads you 
specify (you can have up to 128, though that might be going a little too far).
Enter robocopy /? at a command line for the full details.

72. Load IE faster

Some Internet Explorer add-ons can take a while to start, dragging down the 
browser's performance, but at least IE8 can now point a finger at the worst
resource hogs. Click Tools > Manage Add-ons, check the Load Time in the 
right-hand column, and you'll immediately see which browser extensions are 
slowing
you down.

73. An Alt+Tab alternative

You want to access one of the five Explorer windows you have open, but there 
are so many other programs running that Alt+Tab makes it hard to pick out what
you need. The solution? Hold down the Ctrl key while you click on the Explorer 
icon. Windows 7 will then cycle through the Explorer windows only, a much
quicker way to locate the right one. And of course this works with any 
application that has multiple windows open.

74. Block annoying alerts

Just like Vista, Windows 7 will display a suitably stern warning if it thinks 
your antivirus, firewall or other security settings are incorrect.

But unlike Vista, if you disagree then you can now turn off alerts on 
individual topics. If you no longer want to see warnings just because you've 
dared
to turn off the Windows firewall, say, then click Control Panel > System and 
Security > Action Centre > Change Action Centre settings, clear the Network
Firewall box and click OK.

75. Parallel defrags

The standard Windows 7 defragger offers a little more control than we saw in 
Vista, and the command line version also has some interesting new features.
The /r switch will defrag multiple drives in parallel, for instance (they'll 
obviously need to be physically separate drives for this to be useful). The
/h switch runs the defrag at a higher than normal priority, and the /u switch 
provides regular progress reports so you can see exactly what's going on.
Enter the command

defrag /c /h /u /r

in a command window to speedily defrag a system with multiple drives, or enter 
defrag /? to view the new options for yourself.

76. Fix Explorer

The Windows 7 Explorer has a couple of potential annoyances. Launching Computer 
will no longer display system folders like Control Panel or Recycle Bin,
for instance. And if you're drilling down through a complicated folder 
structure in the right-hand pane of Explorer, the left-hand tree won't always 
expand
to follow what you're doing, which can make it more difficult to see exactly 
where you are. Fortunately there's a quick fix: click Organize > Folder and
Search Options, check "Show all folders" and "Automatically expand to current 
folder", and click OK.

77. Faster file handing

If you hold down Shift while right-clicking a file in Explorer, then you'll 
find the Send To file now includes all your main user folders: Contacts, 
Documents,
Downloads, Music and more. Choose any of these and your file will be moved 
there immediately.

78. Create folder favourites

If you're regularly working on the same folder in Explorer then select it in 
the right-hand page, right-click Favourites on the left-hand menu, and select
Add to Favourites. It'll then appear at the bottom of the favourites list for 
easy one-click access later.

79. Disable hibernation

By default Windows 7 will permanently consume a chunk of your hard drive with 
its hibernation file, but if you never use sleep, and always turn your PC
off, then this will never actually be used. To disable hibernation and recover 
a little hard drive space, launch REGEDIT, browse to 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power,
then set both HibernateEnabled and HiberFileSizePerfect to zero.

80. Create a new folder shortcut

When you need to create a new folder in Windows 7 Explorer, don't reach for the 
mouse. Just press Ctrl+Shift+N to create the folder in the active Explorer
window, then type its name as usual.

81. Open a jumplist

Most people right-click a Windows taskbar icon to view its jumplist. You can 
also hold the left mouse button over the icon, though, then drag upwards to
reveal the jumplist and choose the option you need, a more natural action that 
should be just a little faster.

JumpList

82. Search quickly

If you'd like to search for something in an Explorer window then there's no 
need to use the mouse. Simply press [F3] to move the focus to the search box,
enter your keyword and press [Enter] to run the search.

83. Search file contents

There's no obvious way in the Windows interface to search the contents of files 
that haven't been indexed, but all you need to do is start your search with
the "content:" search filter. So entering content:Microsoft , for instance, 
will find all documents (whether they're actually indexed or not) that contain
the word Microsoft.

84. Close in a click

Hover your mouse cursor over a Windows taskbar button will display a preview 
thumbnail of that application window. You don't need that app any more? Then
middle-click the thumbnail to close it down.

85. Leave the Homegroup

Homegroups are an easy way to network Windows 7 PCs, but if you don't use the 
feature then turning it off can save you a few system resources.

Click Start, type Homegroup, and click "Choose homegroup and sharing options". 
Click Leave the Homegroup > Leave the Homegroup > Finish.

Now click Start, type services.msc and press [Enter] to launch the Services 
Control Panel applet.

Find and double-click both the HomeGroup Listener and HomeGroup Provider 
service, clicking Stop and setting Startup Type to Disabled in each case, and 
the
services won't be launched when you need reboot.


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