Go to a site like http://www.desktopnexus.com/ and create a username and password. This gives anyone access to virtually any interesting image to fit personalized style for backgrounds.

It is refreshing to find a hassle-free wallpaper site like this one. Background image genres can be browsed and downloaded. The great part about this is that there is no need to format, crop, and run the images through photo software. You can still do this if you like, but the graphics are immediately fit to resolution for your PC. There is a direct option to change these settings if desired.

After you set up the account, start browsing and have fun. Just one warning: this can be addictive. Browse for any image and download it:

After the desired image is selected, click download and this is the screen that comes up.

Right-click the image and select “Save image as.” Save it to Pictures for easy access. You can also choose “Set as desktop background” and it will automatically be placed in the background queue. As with any internet download, it is better to save the image in the Pictures file and run a quick security scan to be on the safe side. The images on this site have a good reputation in general.

Repeat the same steps for each desired image. To set the images as backgrounds from the Pictures files, right-click the downloaded image after a security scan and choose “Set as desktop background.” This puts it in the rotation options.

Open the Control Panel and select “Appearance and Personalization.” Click “Change desktop background and select as many images as you want in the rotation. You will then need to set the rotation intervals accordingly. Select the intervals rate in the drop-down menu and be sure to check the Shuffle box or everything selected will go back to previous settings and you will have to start over.

Click “Save changes” and the rotation will be set. You can change the images at any time by following the same steps in the Control Panel. Download images whenever you want. New images are uploaded to the site every day, so check them out when you get a chance and have fun with it.

Naturally, it is just as simple to set a single, non-rotating background image and leave it until you want to create a rotation. This is an easy customization that will appeal to image enthusiasts all around.

Windows 7 displays the taskbar with large icons by default. Large icons look nicer and are easier to reach and interact with. One side effect of large icons is that the height of the Windows taskbar is relatively large, which can be solely attributed to the icon height.

Microsoft has added a simple configuration option to switch from large icons to smaller icons. The main effect is that this change reduces the height of the Windows taskbar considerably.

You will on the other hand notice that smaller icons may reduce visibility and accessibility. The menus, like jumplists or the start menu, on the other hand retain their design and are displayed as before.

Take a look at the two screenshots. The first is showing the taskbar with standard large icons, the second with the smaller icons. The smaller icons are about half the size of the larger ones, not only in height but also in width.

Changing to smaller icons can therefor be interesting for users who have lots of icons pinned or programs open under the operating system.

Here is how you switch the taskbar icons from large to small.

Right-click the Windows taskbar and select Properties from the context menu that opens up. Make sure you right-click on a blank part of the taskbar. You can alternatively right-click the start menu orb, select Properties and switch to the Taskbar tab when the configuration menu opens.

Locate Use small icons and place a checkmark in the box. A click on Apply or OK changes the icon size to small which is immediately visible on the desktop.

Changing the icon size on the taskbar has several advantages. Windows users get more space for open program windows and display more icons on the taskbar at the same time.

The only downside is that the icons themselves are smaller and therefor less visible and accessible on the screen.

Gadgets are installed just like other applications with the difference that they are added to the gadget listing and the desktop automatically.

The first question that may arise is about the save location. Where are gadgets stored?

There are, as usually, two answers to this. It depends if the gadget has been installed system wide or only for a specific user.

• Systemwide gadgets: All gadgets of this kind are usable and accessible by all system users. They are stored in the folders C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets, C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets or for 64-bit systems in the folders C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets and C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets
• User specific gadgets are installed only for, and usually by, a user of the system. These gadgets are stored in the user folder, more precisely under C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets

Gadgets are stored as .gadget files which are basically zip archives that have been renamed.

How to uninstall gadgets

The best option is to uninstall them in the gadgets menu. A right-click on the desktop and the selection of Gadgets opens that menu. All installed gadgets are displayed and it is possible to activate them here or uninstall them. A right-click on a gadget opens a context menu with options to uninstall the selected gadget from the operating system.

A confirmation dialog is displayed with options to go ahead with the uninstallation or cancel it.

It can happen that a gadget cannot be uninstalled properly from the gadgets interface. Deleting the file in the gadgets directory is then an option to remove it from the operating system.

The main benefit of using the Quick Launch bar is that it takes up less space than the pinned taskbar items. Quick Launch is still available as a feature in the operating system, only that it needs to be enabled by the user before it becomes available.

Here is how the Quick Launch toolbar is enabled in Windows 7. Right-click on the Windows taskbar and select Toolbars > New Toolbar.

This opens a file browser window. Just enter the following folder path into the folder field of the browser and click the Select Folder button afterwards.

%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

The Quick Launch toolbar is placed next to the system clock and system tray area in the operating system. It displays Quick Launch and clickable arrows. The arrows open the Quick Launch program list, which means that programs can be started with two clicks, a disadvantage over pinned taskbar programs which can be started with one click.

The Quick Launch toolbar can be modified to display only the program icons so that programs can be launched with just one click.

To do that right-click the toolbar again, select Lock Toolbar to unlock the toolbar and remove the two options Show Title and Show Text from the context menu. The Quick Launch bar can be removed again by clicking on Toolbars > Quick Launch.

On a side note: If you want to change the display in the Control Panel you need to press Windows-R, type gpedit.msc and hit enter. Then locate User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel in the sidebar and there the preference Always open All Control Panel Items when opening Control Panel. Double-click the preference and enable it in the window that opens.

Users without the Group Policy Editor can make the change directly in the Windows Registry by pressing Windows-R, typing regedit and hitting the enter key. They need to navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer, locate the parameter ForceClassicControlPanel and change the value to 1. A restart, log off / on may be required before the changes become visible this way.

Back to adding Control Panel items to the Windows 7 taskbar to launch them faster. When you launch the Control Panel an icon gets placed in the Windows 7 taskbar. The jumplist menu is displayed on a right-click, and we are going to use this menu to place Control Panel items in it. Here is what you need to do.

Open the Windows Control Panel and drag and drop items that you work with regularly to the taskbar icon. That’s it. Windows will pin the Control Panel to the taskbar, but it can be removed if it should not stay there. The jumplist items are there on every start, so that the items can be started with a right-click on the icon in the taskbar and a left-click on the desired item.

Have another tip that you want to share? Let us know in the comments.

The pinned and open items on the other hand are always located on the left side of the taskbar, on the right side of the start menu orb. Some users may want to change the location, especially if they have a widescreen monitor with lots of space on the taskbar.

Some users may prefer to center the taskbar items on the taskbar to improve their accessibility. A quick hack that does not take more than a minute can take care of it.

Windows 7 users have two options for this. They need another toolbar on the taskbar. They can use an existing toolbar, for instance Desktop, or create a blank folder on the system and select that folder for a new toolbar.

All they need to do to create a new toolbar is to right-click the Windows taskbar, select Toolbars and then New Toolbar. Browse to the location of the blank folder and select it. This adds the folder to the taskbar.

Now right-click the taskbar again, and click on Lock the taskbar to unlock it. This makes it possible to move taskbar items around. The new folder toolbar is added to the right of the taskbar. Move that new toolbar to the left in front of the taskbar items. This pushes the pinned items to the middle. It is possible to extend and move toolbars by dragging and dropping the dividers in front of each toolbar.

To make it quick. Drag the new folder toolbar to the left side in front of the pinned items toolbar. Once that is done move the original toolbar to the middle to center it.

Once the position is fixed right-click the folder toolbar, and remove show text and show title from the context menu. This hides the new toolbar completely from the taskbar, and keeps the normal toolbar with the pinned items and open programs in the middle of the taskbar. Right-click the taskbar again, and lock it to finalize the change.

It is possible to undo the change by right-clicking the taskbar, selecting toolbars from the menu and then the new folder toolbar to remove it from the taskbar.

Recently I noticed a strange behavior that I could not figure out at first. Some pinned items in the taskbar would open right on their pinned icon, showing it as active from that moment on. Others however spawned a new icon in the taskbar, as if they were acting completely independent from the pinned item.

This was highly confusing, and I first thought it had something to do with pinned shortcuts who triggered this behavior. I took a closer look and found out that it was not the case. Firefox was linking directly to the Firefox executable on the hard drive and Chrome was doing the same. While a click on Firefox spawned a new item in the taskbar, a click on Chrome did not.

My next thought was that it maybe had something to do how the items were pinned on the taskbar. You know that there are different options available. It is for instance possible to drag and drop an item on the taskbar to pin it, or to right-click it in the start menu or while it is open as a normal item in the taskbar.

While I was not able to figure out what caused this odd behavior, I was able to find a fix for it. If you encounter pinned taskbar items in Windows 7 that spawn a new icon on startup do the following:

Unpin the original item, right-click the newly spawned item, right-click the program executable and select to pin it to the taskbar. Move the new pinned item to the location of the original item, close it and see if that resolved the issue. It did it for me.

Fast way to open the user profile directory in Windows Explorer

It takes some navigating to open the user profile folder in Windows Explorer. It is possible to speed that up in several ways. Some users like to create a folder shortcut for the user profile folder and place it on the desktop, others are adding the folder to the Windows 7 taskbar or configuring Windows Explorer to always start with their user profile folder.

A quick way to open the user profile folder is to press Windows-R, type . and hit enter. Two dots instead of one will open the general users folder instead, that is listing all user profile folders on the operating system.

Display Hardware Information

One of the fastest ways of displaying hardware information, including the Bios model and manufacturer, processor, display and others is to use Windows-R to open the run dialog, enter msinfo32 and then return on the keyboard.

Quickly open programs in the Windows 7 taskbar

Windows 7 users can pin programs to the taskbar, which works exactly like desktop shortcuts on steroids. A fast way to open the first ten programs in the taskbar is to press Windows-[1-0] to do so. Windows-1 opens the leftmost item in the taskbar. There is also an option to use only the keyboard to open any item in the taskbar. Press Windows-t to mark the first item in the taskbar. It is now possible to navigate through the taskbar with successive uses of Windows-t, or the cursor keys. Hitting enter will open or select the active item.

Copy files faster in Windows 7

Copying files in Windows can take a long time, since Windows by default uses one thread (which means one file at a time) to copy the files. The tool Robocopy that ships with the operating system (and Windows Vista, Windows XP users need to install it separately) offers to copy multiple files at once. Here is how it is done:

robocopy “sourcefolder” “destinationfolder” /MT:XX

sourcefolder is the folder of the files that need to be copied, e.g. c:\windows\
destinationfolder is the folder the files need to be copied to
MT:XX defines the number of copy threads, e.g. MT:10 for ten threads.

Manage the start menu in Windows Explorer

The start menu gets filled with software links and folders over time. If you want to remove old folders, and consolidate the start menu you may want to access it directly in Windows Explorer, instead of working with the start menu directly.
Microsoft has moved the location of the Windows start menu in Windows 7 to another location. Windows 7 users find it now located at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Make sure the option to see hidden folders is activated under Tools > Folder Options > View

Got another tip that you want to share with the rest of us? Let us know in the comments.

How to end the explorer.exe process effectively

I regularly have to kill the Windows Explorer process, for instance after install a new Windows theme, or software that interacts with the default shell in the Windows operating system. The fastest option in the last years was to press CTRL-SHIFT-ESC to open the Windows Task Manager, locate the explorer.exe process in the process listing, right-click on it and select end process. Then on to File > Run in the task manager to launch the explorer process again.

kill restart explorer.exe in task manager

This takes some time and is not the best option. I have created a small batch file for killing and restarting explorer.exe with a click of the button.

killex

The batch file automatically kills the explorer.exe process in Windows, and restarts a new instance of the shell afterwards. Simply download and extract the batch file and double-click it to execute. Cautious users may want to look at the code first, which can be done by loading the batch file into a text editor. You should see the following commands:

@echo off
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
start "" "explorer.exe"

Line two of the batch file kills the explorer.exe process, line three will restart it. On to the second tip.

Access the properties menu of items in the Windows 7 Taskbar faster

The new Windows 7 taskbar has changed the way users interact with taskbar items. Windows 7 users who want to access an items properties, for instance to add a command line parameter to its startup, need to right-click on the item, and then again on the actual program link to open the properties menu. Two clicks with the mouse and some fiddling to hit the right entry? Not very comfortable.

The following tip only works for programs that are currently not active. This limits the use a bit. Instead of right-clicking twice and left-clicking once, users can now hold down the SHIFT key on the first right-click to open the context menu with a Properties link right away.

right click properties

Remember, just hold down the SHIFT key before right-clicking on the taskbar item in the Windows 7 operating system.

Have optimizations of your own to share? Let us know about them in the comments.

Jumplists display often used program features and links to recent documents. Not every software supports Jumplists yet, but it is likely that support will increase in the coming years. Many Microsoft applications among others support them on the other hand.

The Microsoft Excel Jumplist for instance displays options to create a new Excel document, or open one of the previously accessed spreadsheets. That’s more comfortable than having to either open Excel to load the spreadsheet, or locate the spreadsheet on the system to load it in the program.

Taskbar previews display thumbnail or text previews of all open instances of a program when the mouse cursor hovers over the item.

Tip 1: Faster Task Switching

Users who want to switch between open instances of a program need to move the mouse cursor over the icon in the Windows 7 Taskbar to make the instances visible, before clicking on one to bring it to the front.

It may be necessary sometimes to switch between multiple open program windows in rapid succession. This cannot be done efficiently the standard way. A faster option is to hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard before clicking on the taskbar icon itself. This switches to the next open program window with each click.

Tip 2: Faster Jumplist Selection

Jumplists sometimes display lots of entries, and it can take some time to find the desired action or recently opened document or file in the listing.

A faster way of accessing specific items is to press the first letter of the file name or function after the jumplist has been opened. This automatically moves the selection to the first matching entry, which can then be accessed by pressing Enter.

Windows 7 for instance comes with an option to add a selection of wallpapers to one theme, to cycle automatically through them over time, which is commonly referred to as wallpaper juggling. The intervals can be set between 10 seconds and 1 day. Another feature that has not received the attention it deserves yet are RSS desktop wallpapers.

The integration of RSS wallpapers has been another step towards greater personalization, even though the feature has not become that popular yet. The main reasons for this are that most Windows 7 users probably do not know that the feature exists, and those that do probably do not know how to create RSS wallpaper feeds in Windows 7. This article acts as a guide to explain how to create Windows 7 RSS themes easily.

We will be using Flickr RSS feeds to create the Windows 7 RSS themes, but the information can easily be used to create RSS themes from other photo sources or wallpaper sites as well.

The major requirement for the RSS feed is that the photos are added as attachments to the feed. We recommend to make use of the RSS preview feature in the web browser to see if the photos are attached, if they are the RSS feed can be used for the RSS theme in Windows 7, if not it cannot be used as the photos cannot be downloaded and integrated then.

Step 1: Finding an appropriate RSS feed at Flickr

Open up Flickr. We recommend a browser like Firefox that displays the availability of RSS feeds in the address bar.

rss feed icon

A click on that icon displays a preview of the RSS feed in the browser. Note that the photos are attached in the feed.

rss wallpaper

A good starting point are tags and groups which mostly come with a compatible RSS feed.

For this tutorial, we have decided to use the Wallpaper 1024 Minimum group at Flickr. One major problem is that it is not possible to find groups or tags that use the exact desktop resolution of the computer desktop.Most wallpaper sites, like Interfacelift for instance offer feeds for the exact resolution.

Before we can use the RSS feed we need to create a theme template. The following template remains the same. Create a new text document on the computer desktop and paste the following contents into it.

[Theme]
DisplayName={themename}

[Slideshow]
Interval=1800000
Shuffle=1
RssFeed={rssfeedurl}

[Control Panel\Desktop]
TileWallpaper=0
WallpaperStyle=10
Pattern=

[Control Panel\Cursors]
AppStarting=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_working.ani
Arrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_arrow.cur
Crosshair=
Hand=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_link.cur
Help=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_helpsel.cur
IBeam=
No=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_unavail.cur
NWPen=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_pen.cur
SizeAll=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_move.cur
SizeNESW=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nesw.cur
SizeNS=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ns.cur
SizeNWSE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nwse.cur
SizeWE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ew.cur
UpArrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_up.cur
Wait=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_busy.ani
DefaultValue=Windows Aero
Link=

[VisualStyles]
Path=%SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles
ColorStyle=NormalColor
Size=NormalSize
ColorizationColor=0X6B74B8FC
Transparency=1

[MasterThemeSelector]
MTSM=DABJDKT

Additional information about each variable can be found at MSDN, for know we concentrate on the two parameters that are important for the creation of RSS themes.

There are two variables that we need to change. First, at the very top the DisplayName. Change {themename} to your theme’s name, e.g. wallpaper 1024

Next, locate the RssFeed= variable and replace {rssfeedurl] with the RSS feed url of the Flickr Group RSS feed, in this case http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/groups_pool.gne?id=40961104@N00&lang=en-us&format=atom

The new theme should look like this now:

[Theme]
DisplayName=Wallpaper 1024

[Slideshow]
Interval=1800000
Shuffle=1
RssFeed=http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/groups_pool.gne?id=40961104@N00&lang=en-us&format=atom

[Control Panel\Desktop]
TileWallpaper=0
WallpaperStyle=10
Pattern=

[Control Panel\Cursors]
AppStarting=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_working.ani
Arrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_arrow.cur
Crosshair=
Hand=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_link.cur
Help=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_helpsel.cur
IBeam=
No=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_unavail.cur
NWPen=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_pen.cur
SizeAll=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_move.cur
SizeNESW=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nesw.cur
SizeNS=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ns.cur
SizeNWSE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nwse.cur
SizeWE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ew.cur
UpArrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_up.cur
Wait=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_busy.ani
DefaultValue=Windows Aero
Link=

[VisualStyles]
Path=%SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles
ColorStyle=NormalColor
Size=NormalSize
ColorizationColor=0X6B74B8FC
Transparency=1

[MasterThemeSelector]
MTSM=DABJDKT

Save the text document as wallpaper1024.theme. A simple double-click will activate the theme. A theme can also be added to the available themes by moving it into the theme directory in Windows 7. The full path is given below.

Windows 7 displays a Subscribe to RSS Feed notification during installation, make sure to select Download Attachments so that all attachments are downloaded and changed in intervals.

subscribe to rss feed

Again, there is a black screen in the beginning and it may take a few moments before the first desktop wallpaper is shown. It is now possible to customize the theme further in the personalization control panel applet. Options are for instance to click on Desktop Background to change the interval in which pictures are changed, or the picture position.

Below is the RSS theme that we have created. Feel free to post links to your RSS themes in the comments.

wallpaper

Lastly, a few tips to manage themes more efficiently. Windows 7 identifies themes by their name. If you run into troubles make sure to rename the theme in the template – and not the file name, so that it is recognized as a new theme by the operating system.

Themes are stored in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes, you can delete installed themes from there easily.

We have monitored the cpu usage and memory usage with Windows Aero on and off on our test system and were not able to detect any wild swings one way or the other. Systems without Aero seem to use less RAM, 50-60 Megabytes less in our case. While this does not seem much on a system with 8 Gigabytes it could prove to be useful on systems with 1 Gigabyte or less.

windows aero enabled

windows aero disabled

How To Disable Windows Aero in Windows 7

It is thankfully not complicated to turn off Windows Aero in Windows 7, all it takes is to select one of the available Windows 7 themes without Aero support. Start with a right-click on the computer desktop and the selection of Personalize from the context menu.

personalize menu

This opens the Personalization Control Panel applet, displaying all themes that are installed on the operating system. Most themes located in here are usually original Microsoft themes, Windows 7 shipped with both Aero Themes, and Basic and High Contrast Themes.

personalization

To disable Windows Aero scroll down to the Basic and High Contrast Themes and select one of them with a double-click. We suggest to pick the Windows 7 Basic theme as it resembles the default theme but with Aero turned off. But regardless of the choice Aero is disabled after the selection of the new theme.

The theme is applied instantly and it is possible to use the icons at the bottom of the screen to change its appearance, including changing the desktop background, color scheme or sounds.

It is possible to enable Windows Aero again by performing the same steps and selecting one of the Windows Aero enabled themes from the list of available ones. The easiest way to spot the difference is to look at the titlebar of any window, if it is transparent Aero is enabled, if it is not Aero is disabled.

Programs can be pinned to the first screen of the Start Menu by right-clicking them in Windows Explorer and selecting the Pin To Start Menu context menu entry.

This adds the program to the Start Menu so that it can be launched from there.

But the option is only provided for executables, and not even for all of them. A right-click on a folder or non-executable file does not display the context menu entry either.

It is nevertheless possible to pin folders and files to the Windows Start Menu. The fastest way to do that is by dragging and dropping them to the desired location.

Start by dragging the folder or file to the Start Menu orb. A Pin To Start Menu overlay is displayed. Dropping the folder or file on the orb places it beneath all entries on the first page of the Windows 7 Start Menu.

Users who want to customize the position can wait until the Start Menu opens to place the folder or file in the desired location.

pin to start menu

You will notice that the folder or file is now available in the start menu. A click on it will either open the folder in Windows Explorer or launch the file in the default viewer.

You might also be interested in our article on how to pin files or folders to the Windows 7 Taskbar since drag and drop is not working for this operation.

This guide details how to clean the hard drives in Windows 7 to remove old data from the operating system. The process does not take longer than a minute and can be performed once a week or whenever it seems necessary.

It should be noted that programs like CCleaner handle additional temporary files and data that the standard disk cleanup tool in Windows 7 ignores. It might make sense in lots of situations to use such a program but there might be situations where this is not possible. And it is of course always good to know how this is done without third party software.

The easiest way to access Disk Cleanup is to enter cleanup in the Windows 7 start menu search and run box. This should display Disk Cleanup as one of the programs found on the computer system.

A dialog window is displayed to select the drive to be cleaned. The Disk Cleanup window is then displayed. Available for selection are for instance files in the Recycle Bin, Temporary Internet Files, Thumbnails or Offline Webpages. Each entry with a checkmark will be cleaned by clicking on the OK button. The operation can also be canceled by clicking the Cancel button.

A click on Clean up system files seems to restart the selection process. The hard drive selection screen will be displayed again and afterwards the Disk Cleanup window. The difference this time is that a More Options tab is available in that window which can be used to remove programs that are no longer used and more importantly to free up disk space by removing system restore and shadow copies.

The last option will remove all but the last system restore point which is still enough to restore the operating system. This option alone can free up Gigabytes of memory on the selected hard drive.

This is all there is to know about manual cleaning up the hard drives in Windows 7. Not as effective as with CCleaner but always possible.

There are thankfully a few options on how to deal with those issues. Probably the easiest is to change the visibility of the Solve PC Issues icon so that the notifications are not displayed anymore in the Windows system tray.

This can be done the following way:

• A click on the white arrow will open all visible notifications in the system tray. Selecting the Customize option displays the known icons and their visibility.
• Locate the Action Center entry and change it from “Show icon and notifications” to “hide icon and notifications”.
• This hides the Solve PC Issues icon so that it is not displayed on the computer desktop.

The second option is to open the Action Center after left-clicking on the white flag that is showing the notifications. This opens the Action Center control panel. It is possible to disable some – but not all – of the notifications in here.

It is for instance possible to turn off notifications about Windows Backup but not about Windows Defender needing to scan the computer system.

The final option is to disable Windows Error Reporting in the Registry. This disables error reporting which has consequences on other features like the ability to create Windows crash dumps as well. It is usually not a good idea to disable error reporting.

Users who still want to go ahead need to launch the Windows Registry by pressing [Ctrl R], typing [regedit] and tapping on [enter]. They then need to navigate to the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting and double-click on the Disable parameter to change its value from 0 to 1. This disables Error Reporting in Windows 7. If the key is not there it can be created by right-clicking in the right window and selecting to create a new Dword that needs to be named Disabled.

It is possible to customize that display either by adding a new favorite location to the sidebar listing (by dragging and dropping the folder there) or by adding a new library.

There is also a third option that does not become apparent to most Windows 7 users. It is possible to change the configuration so that additional links are displayed in that sidebar in Windows Explorer.

The two prominent additions of this configuration change are links to the control panel and recycle bin.

The left image shows the standard display of Windows Explorer with the categories favorites, libraries, homegroup, computer and network while the right screenshots shows the extended display with all folders shown.

The right folder structure has also changed if you look closely as the Desktop now makes up the root of nearly every other folder in that display except the favorite links.

It is really simply to display the control panel and recycle bin in Windows Explorer. All that needs to be done is to open an explorer window, click on Tools > Folder Options and check the Show all folders box under Navigation Pane.

The new display mode is automatically visible after leaving the configuration window.

Autoplay prompts can be helpful. You can for instance use them to always transfer photos from the digital camera that you connect to the PC. But they can also be annoying. Ever had to burn ten or more DVDs only to be prompted with the autoplay dialog every time you would enter a new one?

Windows 7 makes it very easy and comfortable to deal with all those autoplay problems of media and devices.

The Control Panel contains an AutoPlay entry that can be used to define the default behavior of devices and media. The controls can be used to configure autoplay of audio CDs, dvd movies, pictures, blank CDs and DVDs, mixed content media or software and games.

The action for each device and media can be configured individually. Options range from “ask me every time” over playing or opening the device or media in a specific program to “take no action”.

Windows users who do not want to see an autoplay prompt for specific media or devices simply select take no action which will disable the autoplay window in Windows for those media and devices.

Devices will be listed in the configuration panel as well if they are connected to the computer. It is therefor recommended to connect all devices to the computer to configure their settings.

Autoplay can also be disabled globally by unchecking the Use AutoPlay for all media and devices checkbox.

The following article lists twelve advanced tips for Windows 7 that make the operating system faster, more reliable or speed up the daily tasks.

Tip 1: Opening a new instance of a pinned program or folder in the Windows 7 taskbar

Pinned items are opened with a left-click in the Windows 7 taskbar. Another left-click will bring the window to the front but does not open a new instance of the program or folder. This can be done by either middle-clicking on the icon or by holding [shift] and left-clicking on it.

Tip 2: Extend the options of the right-click menu in Windows Explorer

A right-click on a folder or file in Windows Explorer opens a menu with options like copying, opening or renaming the file or folder. Holding [shift] while right-clicking extends that option. New options that are displayed are for instance to open the file or folder in a new process or to open the command window from that location.

Tip 3: Enabling AHCI to speed up hard drive operations

The Advanced Host Controller Interface needs to be enabled in the computer’s bios. Windows 7 will not load if this is done without ensuring that the AHCI driver is loaded in the operating system (which it is not by default). The benefit of enabling AHCI is that it will speed up read and write operations of the hard drive if the hard drive supports AHCI. It is therefor recommended to check the hard drive first to ensure that it is supporting AHCI.

Here is a step by step guide to enabling AHCI in the Windows 7 Registry.

• Press [Windows R], enter [regedit] and hit [enter].
• This opens the Windows Registry editor.
• Move to the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
• Locate the parameter [Start] on the right side and double-click it.
• Change its value from 3 to 0
• Restart the computer and enable AHCI in the bios

Windows will install the AHCI drivers on the next start and prompt for another reboot afterwards.

Tip 4: Run as keyboard shortcut

Several programs require administrative rights to work correctly in Windows 7. This is usually done by right-clicking the program and selecting the run as administrator option in the menu. An alternative to that is to press [ctrl] and [shift] while left-clicking on the program which will have the same effect.

Tip 5: Display the old context menu in the taskbar

A right-click on an icon in the Windows 7 taskbar opens the new jumplist menu. The old menu that displays options like moving, minimizing or maximizing the program windows can be displayed by holding down the [shift] key while right-clicking on the icon.

Tip 6: New Keyboard Shortcuts

Microsoft has introduced several new keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7. Here are some of the more practical ones:

• [Windows]+[t] Switch through the icons in the Windows taskbar
• [Windows]+[g] Display the gadgets
• [Windows]+[+] or [Windows]+[-] Zoom in and out of the selected part of the screen.
• [Windows]+[arrow key up] or [Windows]+[arrow key down] Maximize or minimize the active window
• [Windows]+[arrow key left] or [Windows]+[arrow key right] Place the active window in the left half or right half of the computer screen

Tip 7: Configure the volume of applications individually

Windows 7 offers the feature to configure the volume for each application individually. It will automatically list the applications using sound in their own mixer making it possible to configure these individually. Even better is the fact that these settings are saved so that they are still available after system restarts.

Tip 8: Configure Cleartype for better readability on lcd monitor systems.

The Cleartype text tuner is a new configuration tool in Windows 7. It allows the computer user to enable Cleartype and configure it so that it offers the best readability. The easiest way to start the Cleartype Tuner is by typing in [cleartype] in the Windows 7 start menu form.

Tip 9: Change the shut down button in the start menu

Windows 7 displays a shut down button by default in the start menu which will shut down the computer when it is activated. Some users might prefer a different default action. This can be configured by right-clicking the shutdown button and selecting properties from the menu.

This opens the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties with an option to change the Power button action from Shut down to all other available actions that become available when clicking on the down arrow next to the shut down button. This includes switching users, restarting the system or entering sleep mode.

Tip 10: Change system links in the start menu from links to menus

The system links in the start menu point to the Windows control panel or Windows Explorer. Clicking those links will open the desired item in a new window. It is possible to change some or even all of the items from functioning as links to menus.

This will for instance display all Control Panel modules right in the Window Start Menu or all drives under the Computer entry. The very same configuration can also be used to remove selected items from the start menu.

The configuration menu can be opened by right-clicking blank space in the Windows 7 start menu and selecting Properties. A click on the Customize button in the window that opens will open the config for the start menu items.

Bonus Tip: Disable or enable Hibernation in Windows 7

Hibernation can be disabled or enabled from the command line. Open an elevated command prompt by right-clicking on the command prompt link in the Windows 7 start menu in the accessories folder and select run as administrator.

• powercfg -h on will enable hibernation
• powercfg -h off will disable hibernation

Disabling hibernation makes sense to free up hard drive space that is automatically assigned to hibernation if it is active.

We hope that you have enjoyed those ten tips. Stay tuned for a next batch of tips which we will publish at our sister website Windows 7 news

Paul Thurott discovered a way to perform a clean install of Windows 7 using Windows 7 Upgrade media and to activate it with just a simple tweak which can be applied in the running operating system.

According to Paul all that needs to be done after performing the initial clean installation of Windows 7 is the following:

After performing the clean install, ensure that there are no Windows Updates pending that would require a system reboot. (You’ll see an orange shield icon next to Shutdown in the Start Menu if this is the case).

Then, open regedit.exe with Start Menu Search and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Change MediaBootInstall from “1″ to “0″.

Open the Start Menu again and type cmd to display a shortcut to the Command Line utility. Right-click this shortcut and choose “Run as administrator.” Handle the UAC prompt.

In the command line window, type: slmgr /rearm

Then tap ENTER, close the command line window and reboot. When Windows 7 reboots, run the Activate Windows utility, type in your product key and activate windows. It should just work.

There you have it. An easy way to do a clean install of Windows 7 using an upgrade DVD. This is obviously only legal if you own a previous Microsoft operating system that’s supported by the Windows 7 Update program.

It might be easier to sometimes enter a specific command directly instead of the shell: substitute if a command for that specific function or folder exists. Make sure that there are no spaces in the command unless the name of the folder or app that should be opened contains one or multiple.

Here is a list of all possible shell: commands that should work in the mentioned operating systems:

AddNewProgramsFolder
Administrative Tools
AppData
AppUpdatesFolder
Cache
CD Burning
ChangeRemoveProgramsFolder
Common Administrative Tools
Common AppData
Common Desktop
Common Documents
Common Programs
Common Start Menu
Common Startup
Common Templates
CommonDownloads
CommonMusic
CommonPictures
CommonVideo
ConflictFolder
ConnectionsFolder
Contacts
ControlPanelFolder
Cookies
CredentialManager
CryptoKeys
CSCFolder
Default Gadgets
Desktop
Downloads
DpapiKeys
Favorites
Fonts
Gadgets
Games
GameTasks
History
InternetFolder
Links
Local AppData
LocalAppDataLow
LocalizedResourcesDir
MAPIFolder
My Music
My Pictures
My Video
MyComputerFolder
NetHood
NetworkPlacesFolder
OEM Links
Original Images
Personal
PhotoAlbums
Playlists
PrintersFolder
PrintHood
Profile
ProgramFiles
ProgramFilesCommon
ProgramFilesCommonX86
ProgramFilesX86
Programs
Public
PublicGameTasks
Quick Launch
Recent
RecycleBinFolder
ResourceDir
SampleMusic
SamplePictures
SamplePlaylists
SampleVideos
SavedGames
Searches
SendTo
Start Menu
Startup
SyncCenterFolder
SyncResultsFolder
SyncSetupFolder
System
SystemCertificates
SystemX86
Templates
TreePropertiesFolder
UserProfiles
UsersFilesFolder
Windows

Are there commands missing? Let us know.