I rarely let anyone use my PC because I’m afraid he will mess it up, but it seemsMicrosoft 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 Windows logo 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
Configuration -> 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:
We all had trouble with image burning in Windows, because it couldn’t do it itself, a standalone software
being needed. With Windows 7 this will not be a problem anymore. All you have to do is double-click the ISO image and
burn it on the CD or DVD that’s inserted in the drive.
5. Display Empty Removable Drives:
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.
6. Dock The Current Windows To The Left Side Of The Screen
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 (arrow) to dock it to the left side of the screen.
6. 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 + P to hide it then once again to display it.
8. Display Gadgets On Top Of Other Windows:
Press ALT + G
9. Background Photo Slideshow:
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.
10. Make The Taskbar Smaller:
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 WindowsXP 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.
16. Preview Photos In Windows Explorer:
While in Windows Explorer, Press ALT + P and a preview should appear on the right.
17. Desktop Magnifier:
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:
Press the Windows Key + Home Key.
19. Troubleshoot Power Management:
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.
20. Web Searches From Your Desktop:
Windows 7 lets you search for online resources, by adding a connector that be downloaded for free.
For instance, go to http://www.istartedsomething.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.
21. Add Videos To Your Start Menu:
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.
22. Shift The Window From One Monitor To Another:
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.
23. Custom Power Button:
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.
24. Easily Add A New Font:
Adding a new font it’s now easier than ever. Just download the font you want, double click it and you
should see the install button.
25. Stretch The Window Vertically:
You can stretch the active window vertically to the maximum display height by pressing the Windows + Shift
+ Up (arrow) keys. Press Windows + Down Keys if you want to restore it.
26. Open Windows Explorer:
Press the Windows logo key + E to open a new instance of Windows Explorer.
27. Create A New Instance Of The First Icon In The Taskbar:
Press Windows + 1 Keys to open a new instance of the first icon in the taskbar. This could prove really useful
in some circumstances.
28. Windows Action Center:
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.
29. Windows Troubleshooting Platform:
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.
30. Turn Off System Notifications:
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.
31. Turn Off Security Messages:
To turn off security messages you have to go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Action Center
-> Change Action Center Settings and you can turn off the following notifications: Windows Update, Internet Security Settings,
Network Firewall, Spyware and related protection, User Account Control, Virus Protection, Windows Backup, Windows Troubleshooting,
Check for 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.
33. Run A Program As An Administrator:
You can easily run a program as an administrator by pressing Ctrl + Shift while opening it.
34. Same Program Windows Switching:
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.
35. Auto Arrange Desktop Icons:
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.
36. Encrypt Removable USB Drives:
Encrypting an USB drive has never been easier. Now you can right click on the removable drive and then on
the “Turn on Bitlocker”.
37. Turn Off Smart Window Arrangement:
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 Logo 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.
38. Create A System Repair Disc:
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 space and takes less time.
40. Turn Off ‘Send Feedback’:
If for some reason, you’re still using the Beta version of Windows 7 and if you feel disturbed by “Send
Feedback button”, 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.
41. Improved Calculator:
Windows 7 features an improved calculator that can do unit conversion, date calculation, gas mileage, lease,
and mortgage. Also you can choose between Standard, Scientific, Programmer, and Statistic calculator.
42. Open A Folder In A New Process:
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 button, right-click the drive and “Open in New Process”.
Now you will be safe.
43. Problem Step Recorder:
The Problem Step Recorder is a great tool that can be used in many 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.
44. Free Codecs Pack:
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.
45. Start Windows Explorer From My Computer:
Windows Explorer opens in the Libraries directory by default. Most of us are used to see the My Computer
page instead.
To change it to My Computer, press the Windows Key, then type “explorer”, select Properties
and in the Shortcut tab type “%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}”. Now you
have to right-click the Explorer icon in the Taskbar and hit “Unpin this program from the taskbar”
and then drag it back from the Start Menu.
46. Clear The Desktop:
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.
47. Use Gadgets With UAC Turned Off:
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\CurrentVersion\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:
If you have the final version of Windows 7, then go ahead and skip this one, since it applies only
to Beta and RC versions.
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.
49. Search Everything In Your Computer:
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.
50. Mouse Gestures:
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.
51. Configure Your Music Favorites:
The Windows 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.
52. Turn Off Recent Search Queries Display:
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”.
53. Advanced Disk Defragmentation:
Fortunately, Windows 7 offers much better defragmentation than Vista and also lets you configure it a bit
from the command line.
To do it, press the Windows Key and then type “CMD”.
You can defragment your hard disk from the command line by typing “defrag” and you have the following
options: “/r” will defrag multiple drives simultaneously, “-a” performs a defrag analysis, “-v”
prints the report, “-r” treats files with at least 64 Mb of fragments like are not fragmented, “-w”
will defrag everything. An example is “defrag C: -v -w” to defrag the whole drive C.
54. How To Make Internet Explorer 8 Load Faster:
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.
55. Media Center Automatic Download:
Windows Media Center 12 allows you to schedule data downloads, so it can be done without disturbing you.
To do it, go to Tasks -> Settings -> General -> Automatic Download Options and you can configure it to start
and stop the download whenever you want.
56. Remove The Sidebar:
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, (or click Start), in the search box, 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\Run. This can save you some
RAM consumed with no use.
57. Volume Tweaking
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.
58. Run A Program As Another User:
Windows 7 comes with the possibility to run a program both as an administrator or another user, by right
clicking on the executable or shortcut while holding down the Shift key. Then you have to select “Run as another user”.
59. How To Use Virtual Hard Disk Files:
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.
To initialize a virtual hard disk, press the Windows Key, right-click on Computer, go to Manage ->
Disk Management -> Action -> Attach VHD, specify the location, click Ok, then right click on the virtual disk and
click on Initialize Disk. Select the partition style you want to use and then right-click on the unallocated space and click
“New Simple Volume” and follow the instructions wizard. Now, a new hard drive appears in Windows Explorer and
you can use it as a real partition.
60. Remove The Windows Live Messenger Tab In The Taskbar:
To get rid of the Windows Live Messenger Tab and put it back in the system tray, where it belongs, go to
C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger, right-click msnmsdgr.exe and set its compatibility mode to Windows Vista.
61. Lock The Screen:
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.
62. Create A Screen Lock Shortcut:
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.
63. Enable Run Command In Start Menu:
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.
