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Turn Off “Send Feedback” |
| The current Beta version of Windows 7 is all about feedback from its testers, but if you feel disturbed by it, there is a way to turn it off. Press the Windows Key and type “regedit”, then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop and set FeedbackToolEnabled to 0. After you restart the computer, it shouldn’t be there anymore. Also, if you want to turn it on again, set the FeedbackToolEnabled to 3. | |
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Improved Calculator |
| Windows 7 features an improved calculator that can do unit conversion, date calculation, gas mileage, lease, and mortgage. Also you can choose between Standard, Scientific, Programmer, and Statistic calculator. | |
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Open A Folder In A New Process |
| Windows 7 opens all folders in the same process in order to save resources, but this means if one folder crashes, they all crash. So if you feel like that’s a risk you don’t have to take, then you have to open them all in their own processes. To do this, hold down Shift, right-click the drive and “Open in New Process”. Now you will be safe. | |
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Problem Step Recorder |
| The Problem Step Recorder is a great tool that can be used in more circumstances. You can turn it on by pressing the Windows Key, then typing “PSR.exe” and click Record. Now it will record all your moves and save them as a HTML document that you can view or write descriptions to it. This can help you with troubleshooting or when writing a guidance or tutorial. |
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Free Codecs Pack |
| Unfortunately, Windows Media Player still isn’t able to play many audio and video files, so you will still need some codecs. But with the free codecs pack you can download here you shouldn’t have any problems. |
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Start Windows Explorer From My Computer |
| Windows Explorer opens in the Libraries directory by default. Most of us are used to see the My Computer page instead. To change it to My Computer, press the Windows Key, then type “explorer”, select Properties and in the Shortcut tab type %SystemRoot%explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}. Now you have to right-click the Explorer icon in the Taskbar and hit Unpin this program from the taskbar and then drag it back from the Start Menu. | |
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Clear The Desktop |
| If there are too many windows on the desktop, you can clear it by shaking a window from left to right and all others will minimize. To restore the other windows you have to shake the active one again. | |
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Use Gadgets With UAC Turned Off |
| Maybe you noticed that once you turn off UAC you can’t use the gadgets anymore, as a security measure. But if you want to risk using them, there a simple way to do it, even with UAC turned off. Press the Windows Key, type “regedit”, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE MicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionSidebarSettings and create a DWORD value named AllowElevatedProcess and set its value to 1. Now you should be able to use your gadgets. If not, then reboot your PC and you should be done. |
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Fix The Media Player & Media Center MP3 Bug |
| Both Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center come with a bug that can damage your MP3s by filling missing metadata automatically on imported MP3 files. This can cut a few seconds from the beginning of the tracks and can prove really disturbing. This problem was fixed by Microsoft using the fix located here. | |
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Search Everything In Your Computer |
| Windows 7 offers the possibility to search all file types, including unknown ones and this could help you in some cases. Though it is not recommended, because it’s much slower than normal search, you can give it a try by doing the following: Launch Windows Explorer, go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View and check “Try to search the content of unknown file types”. If you don’t need it anymore, don’t forget to clear it for an increase in speed. | |
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Mouse Gestures |
| Windows 7 has not only brought gestures for those who use touch screen devices, but for mouse users too. So, instead of right-clicking a Taskbar icon to access the jump list, you can hold left-click and drag upwards to smoothly call it up. In addition, clicking and dragging down the address bar in Internet Explorer will open the browsing history. There might be more gestures yet not discovered. |
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Configure Your Music Favorites |
| If you’ve already fixed the Windows Media Center, now you might think of ways to improve your experience with it. The Media Center creates a list of favorite songs based on how often you play them, your ratings and date you’ve added them. If you aren’t comfortable with the way they thought it out, change the way it sorts your favorites by going to Tasks -> Settings -> Music -> Favorite Music. |
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Turn Off Recent Search Queries Display |
| Windows 7 holds and displays the recent search queries by default. This can often prove to be irritating. No need to stress though because it can be disabled. Press the Windows Key, type gpedit.msc, then go to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer and double click on Turn off display of recent search entries. | |
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Advanced Disk Defragmentation |
| Fortunately, Windows 7 offers much better defragmentation than Vista and also lets you configure it a bit from the command line. To do it, press the Windows Key and then type CMD. You can defragment your hard disk from the command line by typing “defrag” and you have the following options: /r will defrag multiple drives simultaneously, -a performs a defrag analysis, -v prints the report, -r treats files with at least 64 Mb of fragments like are not fragmented, -w will defrag everything. An example is “defrag C: -v -w” to defrag the whole drive C. | |
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Make Internet Explorer 8 Load Faster |
| If you want Internet Explorer 8 to load faster, you need to disable the add-ons that slow it down, so go to Tools -> Manage Add-ons and check the load time for each one. You can choose for yourself the ones you can live without and ones that would increase the load speed. | |
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Media Center Automatic Download |
| Windows Media Center 12 allows you to schedule data downloads, so it can be done without disturbing you. To do it, go to Tasks -> Settings -> General -> Automatic Download Options and you can configure it to start and stop the download whenever you want. |
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Remove The Sidebar |
| Windows 7 doesn’t seem to feature the sidebar anymore, but it still exists and runs in the background, being launched automatically at startup. So if you want to get rid of it, there are two ways. The easier one is to press the Windows Key, type MSCONFIG.EXE, click the Startup tab and clear the Sidebar box. The hard way is to press the Windows key, type “regedit”, find and delete the registry key at HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun. This can save you some RAM consumed with no use. | |
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Volume Tweaking |
| Don’t you like that Windows 7 automatically reduces the volume when it detects PC calls? You can turn off this feature by right-clicking the speaker icon in the taskbar, go to Sounds -> Communications and get rid of it. | |
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Run A Program As Another User |
| Windows 7 comes with the possibility to run a program both as an administrator or another user, by right clicking on the executable or shortcut while holding down the Shift key. Then you have to select “Run as another user”. | |
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Use Virtual Hard Disk Files |
| You can now create and manage virtual hard disks files in Windows 7 as if they were real disks. This can allow you to use a live Windows installation on the virtual disk without the need to boot the virtual Computer. To create a virtual disk you have to press the Windows Key, right-click on Computer, then go to Manage -> Disk Management -> Action -> Create VHD. There you can specify the location and size of your virtual hard disk file.To attach the virtual disk file, press the Windows Key, right-click Computer, then go to Manage -> Disk Management -> Action -> Attach VHD and you have to specify the location and if it’s read only or not.To initialize a virtual hard disk, press the Windows Key, right-click on Computer, go to Manage -> Disk Management -> Action -> Attach VHD, specify the location, click Ok, then right click on the virtual disk and click on Initialize Disk.Select the partition style you want to use and then right-click on the unallocated space and click “New Simple Volume” and follow the instructions wizard. Now, a new hard drive appears in Windows Explorer and you can use it as a real partition. |
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Other Windows 7 tip resources
- Tim Sneath : The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets
- 50 seriously useful Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets | News …
- 20 Windows 7 Tweaks & Tips Every Secret Uncovered to Date …
- Windows 7 try these features
- Windows 7 Tips and Tricks
- Gizmodo – Windows 7: The Complete Guide (Now With RC1!) – Windows …
- The Top Windows 7 Tips and Tricks List | Chris Pirillo
- 70 Windows tips
- Top 7 Windows 7 tips and tricks
- Windows 7 tips and tricks
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