Tips & Tricks For Windows 7

Put a “Pin Up” of the Folders You Use Most.
Windows® 7 allows you to “pinUp” the folders you use most on your taskbar. Simply hold your mouse over theFavourite folder, right click, and drag it onto the taskbar. Windows 7 automaticallyPins itself to the Explorer Jump List. To open the folder, right click on the ExplorerIcon and select the folder you want.

Double-Up Your Windows. 
When working within an application, sometimesYou just want more of a good thing. To open another window of the sameApplication (assuming the app can run more than one instance), simply hold Shift and click the taskbar icon. You can also middle-click your third mousebutton for the same result.

Clear, Crisp Display—It’s In Your Control. 
Windows 7 makes it easy for you toadjust your display settings, making text and images easier to view in all the various locations where you work on your computer. Your laptop display may look fine at work but a little dark at home. Adjust the text and image settings easily with two snappy applets: Clear Type Text Tuning and Display Colour Calibration. Run cttune.exe and dccw.exe, or look them up in the Control Panel.

Order and Reason for Your Taskbar.
You can decide the order that your icons show up in your taskbar by simply dragging them to the

order you desire. And for the first five icons, you can launch them with a simple keystroke: Any of the first five icons can be opened by pressing +1, +2, etc.

Taskbar Traversing.
While we’re on the subject of taskbar shortcuts, use +T to shift your attention to the taskbar. Your machine will make its active screen your taskbar menu, and you can use the arrow keys to select the application you’re

interested in. Just hit Enter to launch it. Naturally, to exit this trick, press Esc.

Your Own Personal Help Desk: Windows Troubleshooting Platform.

We’ve all experienced minor issues like Windows Aero not displaying or sound controls not functioning. Don’t get stuck in the mud just because your computer seems to be. Windows 7 can save you from having to bite the bullet and call the help desk for every problem that comes up, thanks to the new Windows Troubleshooting Platform. It’s easily accessed by typing “fix” or “Troubleshoot” in the Start Menu. A list of Windows Troubleshooting Packs allows you to choose from  what might be giving you trouble, and the trouble-shooter will faithfully attempt to clear up the problem.

 Bit Locker To Go Protection.
Bit Locker has become a saving grace when it Comes to increased laptop security. Windows 7 has taken security even farther with its BitLocker To GoTM feature, which allows you to encrypt removable USB

devices and external disks. To enable BitLocker or BitLocker To Go, right click the drive in Windows Explorer and select “Turn on BitLocker…” This can also be managed centrally via Group Policy, so IT administrators can require the USB drive be encrypted before files can be written to it.

Your Own Personal Help Desk: Windows Troubleshooting Platform.

We've all experienced minor issues like Windows Aero not displaying or sound controls not functioning. Don’t get stuck in the mud just because your computer seems to be. Windows 7 can save you from having to bite the bullet and call the help desk for every problem that comes up, thanks to the new Windows Troubleshooting Platform. It’s easily accessed by typing “fix” or “Troubleshoot” in the Start Menu. A list of Windows Troubleshooting Packs allows you to choose from what might be giving you trouble, and the troubleshooter will faithfully attempt to clear up the problem.

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Tips for good IT Manager

Listen to your staff

By far the best advice I can possibly give you is to listen to your staff and to take their recommendations seriously. You don’t necessarily have to follow every recommendation, but at least hear your employees out. They are the ones who do most of the day-to-day work, so they may have insight into aspects of the organization’s operations that you might not pick up on yourself. Not only can your staff give you valuable guidance, but taking the time to listen to them helps build morale. Listening to your employees shows that you respect them and that you value their input.

Be accommodating

Another thing I realized during my tenure as an IT manager is that it’s important to be accommodating to your staff whenever possible. In every organization I have ever worked for, IT jobs have involved a lot of stress and some really long hours. Because everyone worked such long hours, I had to accept the fact that sometimes my employees would need to leave for a little while during the workday. For example, someone might need to go to the bank before it closed or pick up their kids. As an IT manager, I always tried to accommodate these types of requests so long as they didn’t interfere with IT operations.

Maintain your technical knowledge

Often, IT managers (and especially CIOs) spend more time in meetings than they do configuring servers or troubleshooting problems. As a result, it’s easy to let your technical skills become outdated. But there are at least three good reasons why you should maintain your technical skills, even if you don’t use them on a regular basis. First, you don’t want your staff to think of you as an idiot manager who knows nothing. If you don’t have a minimal level of IT knowledge, your staff may not respect you. Second, you never know when you may have to fire an employee or when someone will quit or end up in the hospital or something like that. You need to have enough knowledge to pitch in and help complete whatever projects the employee was working on. Even if you don’t have sufficient time or technical knowledge to complete the project yourself, you should know enough about it to help those who are going to be working on it, if necessary. Third, vendors will constantly try to sell you things. Unless you have a good bit of technical knowledge, you could easily get taken for a ride by a fast-talking vendor who is pitching an inferior product.

Know when to get outside help

No IT employee knows everything. Everyone has his or her strengths and weakness. Sometimes, a project may come along that falls outside of your employees’ skill sets. As an IT manager, you must not be afraid to acknowledge that some projects simply can’t be handled in house and to outsource such projects when appropriate.

 Take measures to relax and avoid burn out

IT can be stressful. Being a manager can be stressful. So it’s critical for IT managers to regularly take time to do something to relax and de-stress. Otherwise, you will become apathetic toward your job as you get burned out, and you will become irritable toward your staff.

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Desktop wallpaper Slideshow: Shuffle Desktop background

Windows 7 has a new feature which can display all wallpapers in a desktop Slideshow. Earlier there was few software that can display a slideshow of all your Wallpapers (Webshots being one of the most popular). To setup a desktop slideshow:


• Right-click at the desktop
• Select Personalize > Desktop Background


Here you can browse the Picture location to select a folder to choose images for desktop slideshow.
• Select and click as many images from the folder you want for desktop slideshow.
• Duration of slideshow can be chosen (anything from daily to once every 10 seconds), also order of appearance can be selected as sequential or shuffle.
Click Save Changes and enjoy the Slideshow.

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Copy Command Prompt Output

Windows 7 command prompt can be used with a clip utility that can used to copy the contents of the command prompt output into clipboard. It is very much similar like the way tee command works in UNIX. Tee command pipelines the output of a command in UNIX to another file. In Windows 7 we can use the „Clip‟ utility to copy the text of command prompt. Adding clip next to any command copy the output.

Syntax for Clipping the Command prompt output: “Command | clip” .You need to type the command followed by Clip in the Command prompt. e.g. > f:\dir | clip will copy the output of the command in clipboard; though it won‟t be displayed .You can further paste the “clapboarded text” to notepad or WordPad.

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Check Windows Version

Windows Version tells the exact Build of OS and service Pack you are using. You can simply check it by using Winver Command. Open Run Dialog box by using Win+R and type “Winver” there without quotes. This will bring a Windows which has OS details such as Windows details.

Alternatively you can also use the Command prompt to find the information. Type “Winver” in command prompt. It would display all details in command prompt.

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Assign Keyboard Shortcuts for Programs

Application can be assigned a shortcut key in Windows 7. The application would launch when the combo of keys is pressed which you entered as the Shortcut Key for that application.

To create Shortcut key for any application in Windows 7:

1. Right-click the program icon and select Properties.

2. Select the Shortcut tab

3. Click in Shortcut key textbox

4. Enter the keyboard shortcut for that program.

5. Press OK to exit.

6. Use the Keyboard shortcut combo to launch the application.

Like Like the way i have used a combo of keys Ctrl+Alt+C to launch calculator application other applications can also be launched using Shortcut keys.

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Create new instance of an Application in Windows 7 Super Taskbar

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Using the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility

Not able to remove or uninstall an application in Windows XP using either the Uninstall option or the Add/Remove Programs tool? Try using the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility. As long as you installed the application using the Windows Installer, this utility will remove all the folders, files, registry keys, and entries from your system and allow you to start over with a clean slate.

Here's how:

1. Download the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility from the Microsoft download center.

2. Locate and run msicuu2.exe to install the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.

3. Locate and launch the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility on the Start menu.

4. From the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility window, locate the application in the list and click the Remove button.

5. Once the application has been removed, click the Exit button to close the utility.

You can now reinstall the application.

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Removing unused device drivers from Windows XP machines

When you install a device driver on a Windows XP machine, the operating system loads that driver each time the computer boots regardless of whether the device is present—unless you specifically uninstall the driver. This means that drivers from devices that you have long since removed from your system may be wasting valuable system resources.

Follow these steps to view and remove these unnecessary device drivers:

1. Press Windows + Break to bring up the System Properties dialog box.

     2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.

3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.

4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.

5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.

6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.

7. In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices.

8. Expand the various branches in the device tree and look for the washed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.

9. To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.

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Taking a fresh look at the Windows XP Task pane

This tip applies to Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

If you’re like most Windows XP aficionados, chances are good that you prefer the Folders pane in Windows Explorer to the Task pane that displays by default in My Computer. As a result, you probably avoid My Computer or simply click the Folders button on the toolbar each time you open My Computer. If this is the case, you’ve probably never spent much time looking at the commands on the Task pane and may be missing many handy command shortcuts.

For example, how many times have you dug into the Control Panel to access Add/Remove Programs? If you use the Task pane in My Computer, you can simply click Add Or Remove Programs in the System Tasks section. And if you open a drive from My Computer, you will find another command that you frequently use in the Files And Folders section of the Task pane: the Make A New folder command.

When you select a folder, you can copy and move folders anywhere on your hard disk easily by selecting the Copy This Folder or Move This Folder command. When you do, a Browse dialog box will appear. This essentially serves as an alternate version of the Folders pane in Windows Explorer.

When you select a file, you can choose either the Copy This File or Move This File command and get the same Browse dialog box with a Folders pane.

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Create an old-time monochrome command prompt in Windows XP

This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

In what some may call the olden days, before there were fancy graphical user interfaces and RGB monitors, early computer monitors were monochrome, meaning that they displayed only one color on a black background. Monochrome monitors were available in three colors: green, amber, and white.

When you open up a Command prompt in its default configuration, it comes up in a white monochrome configuration with white text on a black background. If you’re like most command line users, you’ve changed the color scheme from the Color tab on the Command Prompt Properties dialog box to make the screen more appealing.

However, if you’re ever feeling nostalgic when working from a Command Prompt, you can change the settings on the Color tab to emulate the old green monochrome or amber monochrome monitors. Here’s how:

1. Open a Command Prompt window.

2. Right the title bar and select the Properties command.

3. Select the Colors tab.

4. Select the Screen Background button and select the black box in the color palette.

5. Select the Screen Text button.

6. To emulate an old green monochrome monitor, select the green box in the color palette, and then in the Selected Color Values panel use the spin button for the Green setting to move the number up to 255. Make sure that the settings for the Red and Blue remain at 0.

7. To emulate an old amber monochrome monitor, select the green box in the color palette, and then in the Selected Color Values panel use the spin button for the Red setting to move the number up to 185. Make sure that the settings for the Green remains at 128 and Blue remains at 0.

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Quickly gather MAC addresses in Windows XP with ARP

This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Professional.

When securing a wireless Windows XP network, in addition to using Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption, you can use Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering.

When you enable MAC address filtering, the wireless access point or wireless router verifies that the network card in the computer requesting access has a MAC address in its filter list before allowing the computer to access the network. This means that you must first obtain the MAC addresses of each client computer. To do so, you might think that you have to manually visit each computer and use the Getmac command.

An easier way to gather MAC addresses is to take advantage of the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) command. Here’s how:

1. From one computer, use the Ping command to ping each of the other client computers that will connect to the wireless access point or wireless router.

2. Type the ARP command along with the -a parameter: Arp -a

When used with the -a parameter, the ARP command displays the ARP cache, which stores the IP and MAC addresses of the computers that most recently accessed the system—or in this case, those computers that responded to the Ping command.

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Automatically generate and assign strong passwords in Windows XP

This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional systems in either a stand-alone or peer-to-peer workgroup configuration.

Computer users consistently use very simplistic logic when creating passwords. For example, many of us choose meaningful words, personal dates, or a word commonly found in the dictionary because it makes the password easy to remember. These common practices cause us to sacrifice the security that passwords are intended to provide.

If you’re really at a loss when it comes to thinking of a strong password, you can let Windows XP create and assign a random password to your account. To let Windows XP generate your password, follow these steps.

Warning: Before you follow these steps, please be sure that you are paying careful attention and are ready to actually use a password that might not be as memorable as you’re accustomed to! Also, you cannot use this tip on a Windows Server domain.

1. Open a Command Prompt window and type:

net user username /random (username is your login account name)

2. Press Enter. Windows XP will randomly generate a secure password, as well as assign that strong password to your account. Windows XP will also display the strong password so you can remember it.

At your discretion, you may want to create a Password Reset Disk at this point. This disk will allow you to gain access to your computer in the event you forget your password. Here’s how to create the disk:

1. Open the Control Panel and double-click the User Accounts tool.

2. Click your account icon.

3. Select Prevent A Forgotten Password under Related Tasks.

4. Follow the instructions provided by the wizard.

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Create your own special characters in Windows XP

Have you ever wanted to create your own font or maybe just a special character—for example, a character showing your initials for approving documents with your “signature”? You can easily create your own characters using a hidden Windows XP tool called the Private Character Editor. Here’s how:

1. Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box.

2. Type eudcedit in the Open text box and click OK.

3. When the Private Character Editor launches, you’ll see the Select Code dialog box. Click OK.

4. A user interface that looks and works very much like Paint will appear. Here, you can use standard tools to create your characters.

5. When you finish, select the Save Character command on the Edit menu.

Once you save your new character, you can access it using the Character Map tool. Here’s how:

1. Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box.

2. Type charmap in the Open text box and click OK.

3. When the Character Map appears, select the Font drop-down list and select All Fonts (Private Characters).

4. Select your character, click the Select button, and then click the Copy button.

You can now paste your font character into any document that you want.

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Put your name in the Windows XP notification area : Off hours

During those times when the urgent need for high-powered technical intelligence wanes a bit—especially on a slow Friday afternoon—try this fun trick and amaze your colleagues. Here’s how to make your “own” time by putting your name in the notification area:

1. Access the Control Panel from the Start menu.

2. Double-click Regional And Language Options.

3. Click the Customize button in the Standards And Formats panel of the Regional Options tab.

4. When the Customize Regional Options dialog box appears, select the Time tab.

5. In the AM Symbol and PM Symbol boxes, you can replace that text with your name or whatever word you want, as long as it's no longer than 12 characters.

6. To complete the operation, click OK twice—once to close the Customize Regional Options dialog box and once to close the Regional And Language Options dialog box.

You’ll instantly see your name appear in the notification area right next to the time.

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Prevent a shutdown of a Windows XP system

This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional. Since editing the registry is risky, be sure you have a verified backup before saving any changes.

By default, at three o’clock every morning Windows XP’s Automatic Updates tool contacts the Windows Update site and automatically downloads and installs updates for your system. However, that can't happen if other people who use the computer shut it down at the end of the day. Fortunately, you can prevent anyone from shutting down Windows XP with a little registry tweak. Here’s how:

1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).

2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer.

3. Right-click the Explorer sub key and select New | DWORD Value.

4. Name the key No Close and press Enter twice.

5. Type 1 in the Value Data text box and click OK.

To enable the setting, close the Registry Editor and restart your system. Once your system restarts, you will not be able to it shut down by clicking the Shutdown button on the Start menu. This will prevent most users from inadvertently shutting down the computer.

When you do want to shut down your system, just access Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete, then pull down the Shut Down menu and select the Turn Off command.

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Change the font Windows XP displays in Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer and My Computer display the same font that Windows XP uses for icon titles on your desktop: 8-point Tahoma. If you want to change the font or font size used in Windows Explorer, follow these steps:

1. Access the Display Properties dialog box by right-clicking the desktop and selecting the Properties command.

2. Select the Appearance tab and click the advanced button.

3. Select Icon from the Item drop-down list.

4. Use the Font drop-down arrow to select a font from the list.

5. Click OK twice—once to close the Advanced Appearance dialog box and once to close the Display Properties dialog box.

You can see the new font by launching Windows Explorer or My Computer. If you don't like what you see, simply repeat the steps and select a different font.

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How to Adjust System Restore Space in Windows 7

Now a days the hard drives in computers come with large capacities. If you still want to save all the space possible on your computer, you can disable the System Restore entirely. But usually you don’t have a reason to fully disable the System Restore feature in Windows 7. Window 7 features the option to completely disable System Restore along with the choice of managing the space taken by it. At one point or another, you may think about restricting the amount of space the System Restore feature takes upon the disk if you want. You can easily adjust system Restore space in Windows 7.

Here are the simple steps you need to take in order to adjust System Restore space in Windows 7.

1. Click on Start button.

2. From the Start menu, select the Control Panel.

3. In the control panel, switch to all items view.

4. Select System.

5. Select System Protection in the next window.

6. You will see the System Properties dialog box. Choose the system disc and click the “Configure” button under the System Protection tab.

7. The System Protection for Local Disk C dialog box will appear. Under the Restore Settings, you will see that it is set to “Restore system settings and previous versions of files”.

8. At the end clicks on Apply when you are done.

As you bound the amount of space it consumes, it deletes the older Restore Points. Also there will be lesser number of points to restore from. After you adjust System Restore space in Windows 7 to a minimum level, you should create a Restore Point without delay. This feature to adjust System Restore space in Windows 7 is very useful if you want to save some hard drive space on your computer.

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