WINDOWS 7's COOL THINGS
32.
Explore God Mode
Windows 7 has changed Control Panel
a little, but it's still too difficult to locate all the applets and options
that you might need. God Mode, however, while not being particularly godlike,
does offer an easier way to access everything you could want from a single
folder.
To try this out, create a new folder and rename
it to:
The first part, "Everything" will be the folder name, and can be
whatever you want: "Super Control Panel", "Advanced",
"God Mode" if you prefer.
The extension, ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C, must be entered exactly
as it is here, though, including the curly brackets. When you press [Enter]
this part of the name will disappear, and double-clicking the new folder will
display shortcuts to functions in the Action Centre, the Network and Sharing
Centre, Power options, troubleshooting tools, user accounts and others - more
than 260 options in total.
33. Right-click everything
At first glance Windows 7 bears a striking resemblance to Vista, but there's
an easy way to begin spotting the differences - just right-click things.
Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you'll find a
menu entry to set your screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the
display settings any more.
Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common
system folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more.
And if you don't plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won't
want its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right-click the icon,
select 'Unpin this program from the taskbar', then go install Firefox, instead.
34. Display the old taskbar button context menu
Right-click a taskbar button, though, and you'll now see its jumplist menu.
That's a useful new feature, but not much help if you want to access the
minimise, maximise, or move options that used to be available. Fortunately
there's an easy way to get the old context menu back - just hold down Shift as
you right-click the taskbar button.
35. Desktop slideshow
Windows
7 comes with some very attractive new wallpapers, and it's not always easy
to decide which one you like the best. So why not let choose a few, and let
Windows display them all in a desktop slideshow? Right-click an empty part of
the desktop, select Personalise > Desktop Background, then hold down Ctrl as
you click on the images you like. Choose how often you'd like the images to be
changed (anything from daily to once every 10 seconds), select Shuffle if you'd
like the backgrounds to appear in a random order, then click Save Changes and
enjoy the show.
36. RSS-powered wallpaper
And if a slideshow based on your standard wallpaper isn't enough, then you
can always install a theme which extracts images from an RSS feed,
and so ensures a regularly updated stream of top quality backgrounds (if you
choose wisely, anyway). To see what's available, right-click an empty part of
your desktop, select Personalise > Get more themes online, and click RSS
Dynamic Themes in the left-hand list.
Another option is to produce an RSS-based feed of your very own. Long Zheng
has created a few sample themes to illustrate how it works. Jamie Thompson takes
this even further, with a theme that always displays the latest BBC news and
weather on your desktop. And MakeUseOf have a quick and easy tutorial showing
how RSS can get you those gorgeous Bing photographs as your wallpaper. Or you
can watch our custom theme video tutorial.
37. Customise the log-on screen
Changing the Windows log-on screen used to involve some complicated and
potentially dangerous hacks, but not any more - Windows 7 makes it easy.
First, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
in REGEDIT, double-click the DWORD key called OEMBackground (not there? Create
it) and set its value to 1.
Now find a background image you'd like to use. Make sure it's less than
256KB in size, and matches the aspect ratio of your screen as it'll be
stretched to fit.
Next, copy that image into the %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds
folder (create the info\backgrounds folders if they don't exist). Rename the
image to backgroundDefault.jpg, reboot, and you should now have a custom log-on
image.
Alternatively, use a free tweaking tool to handle everything for you. Logon
Changer displays a preview so you can see how the log-on screen will look
without rebooting, while the Logon Screen Rotator accepts multiple images and
will display a different one every time you log on.
38. Disable Windows Features
Windows 7 enables you to remove many more Windows features than ever before:
Internet Explorer, Media Player, Windows Search, its indexing service, Windows
Gadgets and more. This is something that you need to do cautiously, if at all
(since removing something like Media Player will break many programs which rely
on it), but can be useful if you're looking to create a very simple,
slimmed-down system.
Click Start, type OptionalFeatures and press Enter to launch the Windows
Features dialog. Clear the checkbox to the left of any features that are
surplus to requirements, and click OK to remove them.
39. Recover screen space
The new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can hold
whatever program shortcuts you like (just right-click one and select Pin To
Taskbar). And that's fine, except it does consume a little more screen real
estate than we'd like. Shrink it to a more manageable size by right-clicking
the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar > Use small icons > OK.
40. Make text easier to read
Equipping your PC with an ultra high resolution displays sounds like a great
idea, but it can mean text becomes very small, and as a result some people
manually reduce their screen resolution to compensate. Unfortunately this then
introduces another problem: if you run LCDs below their native resolution then
text (and other objects) will inevitably become fuzzy.
The solution? Leave your LCD at its maximum resolution, but scale text and
other objects up so they become easier to read, while also remaining sharp. You
could do this in Vista, but Windows 7 now makes the process even easier. Click
Start, type "DPIScaling" and press Enter, select the size increase
you need - 125% or 150% - then click Apply and restart to see the results.
41. Enjoy a retro taskbar
Windows 7 now combines taskbar buttons in a way that saves space, but also
makes it more difficult to tell at a glance whether an icon represents a
running application or a shortcut. If you prefer a more traditional approach,
then right-click the taskbar, select Properties, and set Taskbar Buttons to
Combine When Taskbar is Full. You'll now get a clear and separate button for
each running application, making them much easier to identify.
42. Remove taskbar buttons
One problem with the previous tip is the buttons will gobble up valuable
taskbar real estate, but you can reduce the impact of this by removing their
text captions. Launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics, add a string called MinWidth, set it to 54, and
reboot to see the results.
43. Restore the Quick Launch Toolbar
If you're unhappy with the new taskbar, even after shrinking it, then it
only takes a moment to restore the old Quick Launch Toolbar.
Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars > New Toolbar, type
"%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick
Launch" (less the quotes) into the Folder box and click Select Folder.
Now right-click the taskbar, clear 'Lock the taskbar', and you should see
the Quick Launch toolbar, probably to the right. Right-click its divider, clear
Show Text and Show Title to minimise the space it takes up. Complete the job by
right-clicking the bar and selecting View > Small Icons for the true retro
look.
44. Custom power switch
By default, Windows 7 displays a plain text 'Shut down' button on the Start
menu, but it only takes a moment to change this action to something else. If
you reboot your PC a few times every day then that might make more sense as a
default action: right-click the Start orb, select Properties and set the 'Power
boot action' to 'Restart' to make it happen.
45. Auto arrange your desktop
If your Windows 7 desktop has icons scattered everywhere then you could
right-click it and select View > Auto arrange, just as in Vista. But a
simpler solution is just to press and hold down F5, and Windows will
automatically arrange its icons for you.
46. Disable smart window arrangement
Windows 7 features interesting new ways to intelligently arrange your
windows, so that (for example) if you drag a window to the top of the screen
then it will maximise. We like the new system, but if you find it distracting
then it's easily disabled. Run REGEDIT, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop, set WindowArrangementActive to 0, reboot, and your windows will
behave just as they always did.
47. Browse your tasks
If you prefer the keyboard over the mouse, you will love browsing the
taskbar using this nifty shortcut. Press Windows and T, and you move the focus
to the left-most icon on the taskbar. Then use your arrow keys to change the
focus to other icons, and you get a live preview of every window.
48. Display your drives
Click Computer in Windows 7 and you might see a strange lack of drives, but
don't panic, it's just Microsoft trying to be helpful: drives like memory card
readers are no longer displayed if they're empty. We think it's an improvement,
but if you disagree then it's easy to get your empty drives back. Launch
Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear 'Hide empty
drives in the computer folder'.
49. See more detail
The new and improved Windows 7 magnifier offers a much easier way to zoom in
on any area of the screen. Launch it and you can now define a scale factor and
docking position, and once activated it can track your keyboard focus around
the screen. Press Tab as you move around a dialog box, say, and it'll
automatically zoom in on the currently active control.
50. Extend your jumplists
By default a jumplist will display up to 10 items, but it can often be
useful to extend this and add a few more. Right-click Start, select Properties
> Customize and set Number of Recent Items to Display in Jump Lists to the
figure you need.
51. Disable Aero Peek
Hover your mouse cursor over the bottom right hand corner of the screen and
Windows 7 will hide open windows, showing you the desktop. Seems like a good
idea to us, but if the feature gets in your way then it's easy to turn off.
Simply right-click the Start orb, select Properties > Taskbar and clear the
box marked Use Aero Peek to Preview the Desktop.
52. Pin a drive to the taskbar
The taskbar isn't just for apps and documents. With just a few seconds work
you can pin drive icons there, too.
Right-click an empty part of the desktop, select New > Text File, and
rename the file to drive.exe. Drag and drop this onto your taskbar, then delete
the original file.
Right-click your new "drive.exe"
taskbar button, then right-click its file name and select Properties. Change
the contents of both the Target and Start In boxes to point at the drive or
folder of your choice, perhaps click Change Icon to choose an appropriate drive
icon, and you're done - that drive or folder is now available at a click.
43. Expand your taskbar previews
Move your mouse cursor over a
Windows 7 taskbar button and you'll see a small preview of the
application window. To make this larger, launch REGEDIT, browse to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband,
right-click in the right hand pane and create a new DWORD value called
MinThumbSizePx. Double-click this, choose the Decimal option, set the
value to 350 and reboot to see the results. Tweak the value again to
fine-tune the results, or delete it to return to the default thumbnail
size.
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