Showing posts with label Windows 7. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Windows 7. Show all posts
Remove Windows Version from Desktop
1.Click on "Start", then "Run.." and type "regedit".
2.Navigate to the registry key:
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop".
3.Once there, locate the DWORD value "PaintDesktopVersion".
4.Right click on it and select Modify.
"0" removes Windows version from desktop.
"1" adds Windows version to desktop.
Reboot
WIndows 7 or windows 8?
Some differences between windows 7 & windows 8.
These differences are cool and will surely make using Windows 8 a brilliant experience!
Windows 7, Microsoft’s last OS to be introduced got us all spell bound. It was successful in getting people to forget the disastrous experiences of Vista and was by far Microsoft’s best Operating System.
With Windows 8 set to be released in around 5-6 months time, one can already see that Microsoft is up to something bigger this time. The initial reviews and reports have been encouraging while the expectations with this high-tech OS are really high amongst the consumers.
Here are the 5 top cool differences between Windows 8 and its predecessor.
Lightning Fast Boot Time
The past history of Microsoft suggests that we shouldn’t believe in their claims that Windows 8 will provide lightning fast boot time. They claimed it with Windows 7 too but failed miserably in bringing any considerable difference.
It is for this reason that I didn’t believe it at first when somebody told me that it took only 10 seconds for a 3 year old laptop to boot with Windows 8 (it took around 48 seconds to boot for a normal PC with Windows 7). However, it is the truth and it seems that Microsoft has finally made an improvement in boot time which is really exciting!
Close applications automatically!
I find this difference really interesting and would like to test it intensively as soon as I get the final copy of Windows 8. Traditionally, all versions of Windows (including Windows 7) left it up to the user to decide whether he wanted to close the running programs or not. In such a case, computer performance depended upon your actions and if you started using a lot of programs at once, your system’s speed slowed down as you ran out on RAM.
Windows 8 tries to help you in managing your programs and your system’s performance by actually closing the applications and programs which you haven’t used for a certain time-period (no need to worry, the Windows will auto-save it before closing it) so as to help you in keeping your system speed intact.
Dynamic Desktop
Windows 8’s desktop would be a lot different from the desktop of a Windows 7 user as Microsoft has replaced the normal shortcut icons with dynamic tiles. You can change their size and place similar applications around each other- or anything else that my suit you.
The important thing to understand is that these tiles just don’t open up the application but also display information from them. For instance, if your RSS Feed has got something interesting, it will start to show on the tile right away!
Mount ISO images without a problem
Another difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 is that Windows 7 could only burn an ISO image to a DVD but Windows 8 actually betters this by offering you the option to mount the image too. In Windows 7, you didn’t have the option to make virtual drives to use the ISO image’s content but Windows 8 allows you to create a virtual drive to mount the ISO image so that you can easily use it just like a normal DVD.
Some say that Microsoft has been late in offering this feature but I say ‘better late than never’!
Built-in Antivirus
Moreover, Windows 8 has an antivirus present inside the kernel of the operating system. This means that your system won’t boot if a corrupt USB device is plugged in. It sounds impressive though I don’t know whether it would pass the test of time…. and viruses!
All in all, I do expect Windows 8 to be a serious upgrade on Windows 7 and with Microsoft working on the things that require some tweaking; I genuinely believe that Microsoft is finally ready to launch an OS which will take the world by storm!
A description of the differences between 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista
| Architecture | Windows Vista, 32-bit versions | Windows Vista, 64-bit versions |
|---|---|---|
| System requirements | 1-gigahertz (GHz) 32-bit (x86) processor or 64-bit (x64) processor, 512 MB of RAM | 1-GHz 64-bit (x64) processor, 1 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended) |
| Memory access | A 32-bit version of Windows Vista can access up to 4 GB of RAM. | A 64-bit version of Windows Vista can access from 1 GB of RAM to more than 128 GB of RAM. |
| Memory access per edition | All 32-bit versions of Windows Vista can access up to 4 GB of RAM. | Windows Vista Home Basic - 8 GB of RAM Windows Vista Home Premium - 16 GB of RAM Windows Vista Business - 128 GB of RAM or more Windows Vista Enterprise - 128 GB of RAM or more Windows Vista Ultimate - 128 GB of RAM or more |
| DEP | 32-bit versions of Windows Vista use a software-based version of DEP. | 64-bit versions of Windows Vista support hardware-backed DEP. |
| Kernel Patch Protection (PatchGuard) | This feature is not available in 32-bit versions of Windows Vista. | This feature is available in 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. Kernel Patch Protection helps prevent a malicious program from updating the Windows Vista kernel. This feature works by helping to prevent a kernel-mode driver from extending or replacing other kernel services. Also, this feature helps prevent third-party programs from updating (patching) any part of the kernel. |
| Driver signing | Unsigned drivers may be used with 32-bit versions of Windows Vista. | 64-bit versions of Windows Vista require that all device drivers be digitally signed by the developer. |
| 32-bit driver support | 32-bit versions of Windows Vista support 32-bit drivers that are designed for Windows Vista. | 64-bit versions of Windows Vista do not support 32-bit device drivers. |
| 16-bit program support | 32-bit versions of Windows Vista support 16-bit programs, in part. | 64-bit versions of Windows Vista do not support 16-bit programs. |
Turn ReadyBoost on or off for a storage device
ReadyBoost can speed up your computer by using storage space on most USB flash drives and flash memory cards.
Watch this video to learn how to turn ReadyBoost on or off for a storage device (1:32)
To turn ReadyBoost on or off
- Plug a flash drive or flash memory card into your computer.
- In the Autoplay dialog box, under General options, click Speed up my system.
- In the Properties dialog box, click the ReadyBoost tab, and then do one of the following:
- To turn ReadyBoost off, click Do not use this device.
- To use the maximum available space on the flash drive or memory card for ReadyBoost, click Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost. Windows will leave any files already stored on the device, but it'll use the rest to boost your system speed.
- To use less than the maximum available space on the device for ReadyBoost, click Use this device, and then move the slider to choose the amount of available space on the device you want to use.
- Click OK.
Move the slider to choose how much space you want to designate for boosting your system speed.
Using memory in your storage device to speed up your computer
ReadyBoost can speed up your computer by using storage space on most USB flash drives and flash memory cards. When you plug a ReadyBoost-compatible storage device into your computer, the AutoPlay dialog box offers you the option to speed up your computer using ReadyBoost. If you select this option, you can choose how much memory on the device to use for this purpose.
When you set up a device to work with ReadyBoost, Windows shows you how much space it recommends you allow it to use for optimal performance. For ReadyBoost to effectively speed up your computer, the flash drive or memory card should have at least 1 gigabyte (GB) of available space. If your device doesn't have enough available space for ReadyBoost, you'll see a message telling you to free some space on the device if you want to use it to speed up your system.
You can enable or disable ReadyBoost for a specific flash drive or other removable storage device. For more information, see Turn ReadyBoost on or off for a storage device.
Capture Unallocated Partition Space in Windows 7
How to Capture Unallocated Partition Space in Windows 7
- To begin, right-click on the Windows 7 partition and select the Move/Resize command, as shown in the following picture.
- Select the Move/Resize command on the Windows 7 partition.
As soon as you do, you’ll see the Move/Resize Partition dialog box, where you can resize the partition either by typing the appropriate numbers in the text boxes or by simply selecting the marker at the beginning of the partition and dragging it all the way to the left.
- You can resize the partition by dragging the marker all the way to the left.
- Once you drag the marker all the way to the left, you’ll see that the partition now occupies the full hard disk, as shown in Figure D. To continue, click OK, and you’ll return to the main Partition Wizard window.
- The partition is now staged to occupy the full hard disk.
- To initiate the Move/Resize Partition, you can click the Apply button below the Operations Pending panel, as shown in Figure E.
- Click the Apply button below the Operations Pending panel to initiate the Move/Resize Partition operation.
- When you do, Partition Wizard will recognize that the partition that you are resizing is the current partition and will display an error message that will also prompt you to restart the system, as shown in Figure F.
Partition Wizard will prompt you to restart the system so that it can perform the Move/Resize Partition operation.
Hibernation
To make hibernation unavailable, follow these steps:
- Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
- In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.
- When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.
- At the command prompt, type powercfg.exe /hibernate off, and then press ENTER.
- Type exit and then press ENTER to close the Command Prompt window.
- Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
- In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.
- When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.
- At the command prompt, type powercfg.exe /hibernate on, and then press ENTER.
- Type exit and then press ENTER to close the Command Prompt window.
Get back the Quick Launch bar
Windows 7's new taskbar functions as a program launcher as well as task switcher. As a result, the old Quick Launch bar, the area on the left side of the taskbar that contained shortcuts for frequently used programs, has been banished. However, if you really miss the little applet, you can add it back. Here's how to do it:
1. Right-click the taskbar and choose Toolbars --> New Toolbar.
2 . You'll be asked to select a folder for where the new toolbar should live. In the Folder text box at the bottom of the dialog box, enter this text:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
After you do that, click Select Folder. A link for the Quick Launch bar will be added to the taskbar. It will be on the right of the taskbar, just to the left of the Notification area.
The Quick Launch bar docked on the right.
It's not particularly useful docked all the way to the right with no application icons showing, so we're going to have to do a bit of work on it to make it useful. Right-click the taskbar and, in the pop-up menu, remove the check next to "Lock the taskbar." Now right-click Quick Launch and remove the checks next to Show Text and Show Title.
Once you've done that, drag the vertical triple dotted line next to the Quick Launch bar to the left until you expose its icons. To prevent further changes, right-click the taskbar and check Lock the taskbar. You can now use the Quick Launch bar as you could in Windows XP and Vista, including adding icons to it and deleting them.
The Quick Launch bar, restored to usefulness.Take Control of the Taskbar Notification Area
The notification area, at the far right of the taskbar, shows system messages and alerts, and displays the icons of programs and services that typically run in the background, such as Windows 7's wireless service. But what determines when, how and which icons show up there seems one of Windows' great mysteries.
Customizing the taskbar notification area.
There's a simple way to find out, and better yet, to customize it.
1. Right-click the taskbar, select Properties, and from the dialog box in the notification area section, click Customize.
2. For each application, select from the drop-down box whether you want the icon and notifications to always be displayed, to never be displayed or to have an icon appear only when there's a notification of some kind. Click OK when you're done.
You can also customize the system icons and services that appear there, including the clock, volume, network, power and Action Center icons. At the bottom of the same screen, click "Turn system icons on or off," and from the screen that appears, choose whether to turn on or off the icon and notifications. Click OK twice when you're done.
Speed Up the Display of Thumbnails on the Taskbar
One of the nicest things about the taskbar is that when you hover your mouse over the icons in it, you can see thumbnail previews of all open windows for each of those applications. When you do so, there is a slight delay before the thumbnail appears. But you can make the thumbnails display more quickly by using a Registry hack.
Important: Always create a Restore Point before editing the Windows Registry. If you don't know how to create a Restore Point or find your way around the Windows Registry, see "The tweaker's guide to the Windows Registry."
The taskbar in thumbnail view.
1. Launch the Registry Editor by typing
regedit in the Search box and pressing Enter.
2. Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse.
3. Double-click
MouseHoverTime. The default value you'll see is 400 -- which means 400 milliseconds. Type in a new, smaller value -- 150 is a good bet. Then click OK and exit the Registry Editor. You'll have to log off or restart your computer for the change to take effect.Build Your Own Internet Search Connector
Windows 7 has a very useful new feature called a Search Connector that lets you search through a Web site from right inside Windows Explorer. With it, you type in a search term and select the Search Connector for the site you want to search; Explorer searches the Web site without having to open Internet Explorer, and the results appear inside Windows Explorer. Click any of the results to head there using your default Web browser.
Normally, you'll need to get each Search Connector from the Web site through which you want to search, and very few Connectors are available. Sites normally need to adhere to OpenSearchstandards in order for their Connectors to work.
However, there's a work-around that will let you easily build your own Search Connector for any site, using Windows Live Search as a kind of go-between. Don't worry, you don't need to know any code to write a Connector. Just follow these steps:
1. Copy the following text and paste it into Notepad. The text you'll need to change is in bold, all-caps text:
NAME YOUR SEARCH DESCRIPTION OF SEARCH SITENAME.COM&web.count=50"/> SITENAME.COM"/> 
Adding a new Search Connector.
2. In place of
NAME YOUR SEARCH, type in the name of the search as you want it to appear. In our case, we're going to build a Search Connector for Computerworld, so we'll just type in Computerworld.
3. In place of
DESCRIPTION OF SEARCH, type in a longer description of the search. In our instance, it will be Search through Computerworld.
4. In the two
SITENAME.COM entries, enter the Web site's domain. Don't use the http:// or www -- just the domain name. In our instance it will becomputerworld.com.
5. To the right of
"count=", type in the number or results you want to appear. In our instance, we'll keep it at 50.
6. In our example, here's what the code should look like (no bold necessary):
Computerworld Search through Computerworld computerworld.com&web.count=50"/> computerworld.com"/> 
Results from a custom Search Connector.
7. Save the file in Notepad, choose UTF-8 from the Encoding drop-down box near the bottom of the Save As screen, and give it an .osdx extension. In our instance, we'll call the file Computerworld.osdx.
8. In Windows Explorer, right-click the .osdx file and select Create Search Connector. The Search Connector will be created.
9. You can now use the Search Connector. To get to it, in Windows Explorer go to YourName --> Searches --> Connector, where YourName is your account name, and Connector is the name of the Connector.
Show all Your Drives in Windows Explorer
Depending on your system settings, when you go to Computer in Windows Explorer, you may be in for a shock -- you may not see all your drives such as memory card readers if those drives are empty. If this disconcerts you, there's a simple way for you to see them even if there's nothing there:
Having Explorer show empty drives.
1. Launch Windows Explorer and press the Alt button to reveal the top menu.
2. Select Tools --> Folder Options and click the View tab.
3. Under "Advanced settings," uncheck the box next to "Hide empty drives in the Computer folder." Click OK. The drives will now always be visible.
Set a New Windows Explorer Launch Folder
When you run Windows Explorer, it always opens to the Libraries folder. That's fine if you use Microsoft's default file organization, which designates Libraries as the overall container for your folders. But what if you don't? You might prefer to have Windows Explorer open to Computer or any other folder you choose. Here's how to do it:
Changing the default Explorer location.
1. Right-click the Windows Explorer icon on the taskbar (it's the one that looks like a folder), and then right-click the Windows Explorer icon from the context menu that appears and select Properties. The Windows Explorer Properties dialog box appears.
2. You'll have to edit the Target field on the Shortcut tab of this dialog box in order to change the default location at which Explorer opens.
If you want Explorer to open to a specific folder, simply enter the name of the folder, substituting your folder name for Folder, below, like this:
%windir%\explorer.exe c:\Folder
So to open Explorer to the folder named Budget, you would type this in the Target field:
%windir%\explorer.exe c:\Budget
If you want Explorer to open to special, pre-set locations, such as Computer, you'll need to enter special syntax in the Target field. Following is a list of three common locations and the syntax to use, followed by the syntax for the Libraries folder in case you ever want to revert to the default.
- Computer:
%windir%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} - My Documents:
%windir%\explorer.exe ::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103} - Network:
%windir%\explorer.exe ::{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D} - Libraries:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe
3. After you've changed the Target field, click OK. Next time you launch Windows Explorer, it will open to the new location you've designated.
Protect the privacy of your Explorer searches
Select "Enabled" to protect search privacy.
When you search through your PC from Windows Explorer, you can see the most recent searches that have been performed. If you share a PC and don't want others to see what you've searched for, you can turn off the recent searches feature:
1. In the Start menu's Search box, type
GPEDIT.MSC and press Enter to launch the Group Policy Editor.
2. Go to User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Components --> Windows Explorer.
3. Double-click "Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box" and select Enabled from the screen that appears. Then click OK. The recent searches feature will now be turned off.
Open a command prompt at any folder
Command prompt fans will welcome this tip. With it, when you're in Windows Explorer, you can open a command prompt to any folder. This tip does exactly what the Windows XP PowerToy "Open Command Window Here" does.
To use it, hold down the Shift key and right-click a folder, then choose "Open command window here" from the context menu that appears. (Note that this tip doesn't work in the Documents folder.)
Use check boxes to select multiple files
In order to select multiple files for an operation such as copying, moving or deleting in Windows Explorer, you generally use the keyboard and the mouse, Ctrl-clicking every file you want to select. But if you're mouse-centric, there's a way to select multiple files in Windows 7 using only your mouse, via check boxes. To do it:
1. In Windows Explorer, click Organize, and then select "Folder and search options."
2. Click the View tab.
3. In Advanced Settings, scroll down and check the box next to "Use check boxes to select items." Click OK.
4. From now on, when you hover your mouse over a file in Windows Explorer, a check box will appear next to it; click it to select the file. Once a file is selected, the checked box remains next to it; if you uncheck it, the box will disappear when you move your mouse away.
Selecting multiple files using your mouse and check boxes.Add a Videos Link to the Start Menu
The Windows 7 Start Menu includes links to your Pictures and Music folders, but not to your Videos folder. If you watch a lot of videos and want a link to them on your Start Menu, here's what you can do:
Displaying the Videos folder on the Start Menu.
1. Right-click the Start button and select Properties.
2. On the screen that appears, go to the Start Menu tab and click Customize.
3. In the dialog box that appears, scroll to the bottom, look for the Videos section, select "Display as a link," and click OK and then OK again.
If you'd prefer that Videos display as a menu, with links to files and submenus, instead select "Display as a menu."
Customize the Shut Down Button
The default action of the Start Menu's Shut down button is to turn off your PC. If you want to use the button for another action, such as restarting your PC, you click the arrow to the right of the Shut down button and select an action from the drop-down menu.
What if you rarely shut your PC down completely but frequently restart it? You can change the Shut down button's default action to be Restart -- or Switch user, Log off, Lock, Sleep or Hibernate.
To change your default, right-click the Start button and select Properties. On the Start Menu tab, click the "Power button action" drop-down menu and select which action you want to be the default. Then click OK, and OK again.
Search the Internet from the Start Menu
The Start Menu's search box is a convenient way to search through your PC -- but you can also have it do double-duty and perform Internet searches as well. To enable this feature:
1. In the Start Menu search box, type
GPEDIT.MSC and press Enter to run the Group Policy Editor.
2. Go to User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Start Menu and Taskbar.
3. Double-click "Add Search Internet link to Start Menu," and from the screen that appears, select Enabled. Then click OK and close the Group Policy Editor.
Enabling Internet search from the Start Menu.
4. From now on, when you type a search term in the Search box on the Start Menu, a "Search the Internet" link will appear. Click the link to launch the search in your default browser with your default search engine.
Modify UAC
A laptop's power efficiency report.
The User Account Control security feature was one of the most reviled additions to Windows Vista, with good reason -- its constant warning messages asking for permission to continue many operations drove users around the bend. UAC has been significantly improved in Windows 7 so that it's not as intrusive as in Vista, but you can still tweak it if you like.
Here's how to turn UAC on or off, and make it less or more intrusive than the default:
1. Go to the Control Panel --> User Accounts and Family Safety.
2. Click User Accounts, then click Change User Account Control settings.
Modifying UAC.
3. From the screen that appears, use the slider to select the level of protection you want. Here are the four levels and what they mean:
Always notify me. Think of this as UAC Classic. It works like Vista's UAC: When you make changes to your system, when software is installed or when a program tries to make a change to your system, an annoying prompt appears.
Default -- Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer. This is, obviously, the default; make a change yourself and UAC leaves you alone. When a program makes a change, a prompt appears and your desktop goes dark, just like it does in Vista. Otherwise, UAC sits there silently.
Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop).This setting is identical to the default setting, with one difference: It won't dim your desktop so that you only see the UAC prompt asking you to take action. This presents a slightly elevated security risk over the default setting, because theoretically a program could allow a malicious program to interfere with the UAC prompt.
Never notify me when: In this one, UAC is completely turned off. This is, of course, an insecure option and not recommended for most users.
After you make the selection, click OK. Depending on the selection you made, you may need to restart your system for it to take effect.
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