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Category: pc support

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Prevent Changing Wallpaper Using a Registry Hack
    Sometimes you might not want users to have the ability to change Wallpaper on Windows 7 workstations. Today we look at how to prevent them from changing.

    Using a Registry Editor
    You can also make a couple Registry changes to prevent users from changing the Wallpaper which will work on Home versions of Windows 7.
    Note: Before making any Registry changes make sure you back it up first.
    1. Open the Registry by typing regedit into the Search box in the Start menu and hit Enter.
    2. First we’ll start with the Wallpaper. Navigate to 
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System 
    and create a new String Value and name it Wallpaper.
    3. Then modify the Value data to point to the location of the Wallpaper you want it to always be. Where in this example it’s our main wallpaper on our local drive, then click OK.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Prevent Changing the Wallpaper in Windows 7
    Sometimes you might not want users to have the ability to change Wallpaper on Windows 7 workstations. Today we look at how to prevent them from changing.

    Prevent Changing Wallpaper Using Group Policy Editor
    Note: This method uses Group Policy which is not available in Home versions on Windows 7.
    1. Open the Start Menu and enter gpedit.msc into the Search box and hit Enter.
    2. When Local Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to 
    User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Control Panel \ Personalization. 
    Then in the right column double-click on Prevent changing desktop background.
    3. Now check the radio button next to Enabled, then click OK.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Disable Search History Display in Windows 7
    The new search feature in Windows 7 has been enhanced greatly in this version of Windows, and by default it saves recent searches. If you’re annoyed by this and want to turn it off, we will show you how using Group Policy Editor.

    Note: This method uses Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7
    Notice that when you go to the search box and start entering in something, the last three searches you’ve done appear. It can get old looking at mistyped words or seeing a search term that is old.
    To turn that feature off we need to go into Local Group Policy Editor. Type gpedit.msc into the start search box and hit Enter.
     
    Navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Windows Explorer then double click on “Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box”.
    Set it to Enabled then hit Apply then OK and close out of Group Policy Editor.
    Now when you start searching for something there is no longer the search history popping up to annoy you.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Remove Programs from the Open With Menu in Explorer


    Would you like to clean up the Open with menu in Windows Explorer?  Here’s how you can remove program entries you don’t want in this menu on any version of Windows.
    Have you ever accidentally opened an mp3 with Notepad, or a zip file with Word?  If so, you’re also likely irritated that these programs now show up in the Open with menu in Windows Explorer every time you select one of those files.  Whenever you open a file type with a particular program, Windows will add an entry for it to the Open with menu.  Usually this is helpful, but it can also clutter up the menu with wrong entries.

    On our computer, we have tried to open a PDF file with Word and Notepad, neither which can actually view the PDF itself.  Let’s remove these entries.  To do this, we need to remove the registry entries for these programs.  Enter regedit in your Start menu search or in the Run command to open the Registry editor.

    Backup your registry first just in case, so you can roll-back any changes you make if you accidentally delete the wrong value.

    Now, browse to the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \ Explorer \FileExts\
    Here you’ll see a list of all the file extensions that are registered on your computer.

    Browse to the file extension you wish to edit, click the white triangle beside it to see the subfolders, and select OpenWithList.  In our test, we want to change the programs associated with PDF files, so we select the OpenWithList folder under .pdf.

    Notice the names of the programs under the Data column on the right.  Right-click the value for the program you don’t want to see in the Open With menu and select Delete.

    Click Yes at the prompt to confirm that you want to delete this value.

    Repeat these steps with all the programs you want to remove from this file type’s Open with menu.  You can go ahead and remove entries from other file types as well if you wish.
    Once you’ve removed the entries you didn’t want to see, check out the Open with menu in Explorer again.  Now it will be much more streamlined and will only show the programs you want to see.

  • Windows 7 Tips

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    Schedule Updates for Windows Media Center
    If you use Windows Media Center in Vista or Windows 7, it can sometimes be annoying when it decides to download updates and waste bandwidth while you’re working on other things. Here we take a look at scheduling the updates for a specific time.

    You may have noticed the icon in your system tray telling you Windows Media Center is updating.
    To schedule the updates for a specific time,
    Open Media Center and go to
    Tasks \ Settings \ General \ Automatic Download Options.
    Then schedule a start and stop time for downloading updates.

  • Change password time limit – Windows 7 Tips

    Change the Length of Time When Users Need to Change their Login Password

    If you’re the administrator of a shared computer or a few in the office, you probably want to have the users change their password periodically for enhanced security. Here’s how to do it in Windows 7

    Note: This uses Local Security Policy which is not available in Home versions of Windows. 
    These are local settings on machines not on a domain. Domain settings will take precedence over local settings.
    Changing Password Age in Windows 7
    • Log in as Administrator and type Secpol.msc into the Search box of the Start Menu and hit Enter.
    • Local Security Policy opens. Navigate to Account Policies \ Password Policy and double-click on Maximum password age.
    • Here you can change the Maximum password age to what you want. By default it is 42 days, but you can change it from 1-999 days. When you’re finished, click OK and close out  of Local Security Policy Editor.

    • If you set it to zero, the password would never expire.

  • Local user and groups – Windows 7 Tips

    Using Local Users and Groups to Manage User Passwords in Windows 7
    If you have multiple user on your local machine or manage workstations in an office, you might want to enable or disable their password protection for added security. Today we take a look at how to do it in Windows 7.

    Note: Unfortunately this method does not work in Home versions of Windows. Also, these are stand alone machines and not part of a domain.
    Manage Passwords in Vista & Windows 7
    Here we will start with basic password management. Right-click on Computer in the Start Menu or from the Desktop icon and select Manage.
    Navigate to Local Users and Groups \ Users and double-click on the user account where you want to manage password expiration.
    In this example we used User_geek and we can select if they need to change the password on next login, disable them changing it, or password never expires. The process is essentially the same in Vista as well.
    For User_geek we set their account to change the password on the next logon. So when they logon they’ll see the following message.
    Since this is the first time they have logged on, there was no Password yet, but they will need to create one.
    Password was successfully created

  • Drive Mirroring for Instant Backup – Windows 7

    Use Drive Mirroring for Instant Backup in Windows 7

    Even with the best backup solution, a hard drive crash means you’ll lose a few hours of work. By enabling drive mirroring in Windows 7, you’ll always have an up-to-date copy of your data.

     
    Windows 7’s mirroring – which is only available in Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions – is a software implementation of RAID 1, which means that two or more disks are holding the exact same data. The files are constantly kept in sync, so that if one of the disks fails, you won’t lose any data.
    Mirroring an Existing Drive
    Click on the start button and type partitions in the search box. Click on the Create and format hard disk partitions entry that shows up.
    Alternatively, if you’ve disabled the search box, press Win+R to open the Run window and type in:
        diskmgmt.msc
    The Disk Management window will appear. We’ve got a small disk, labeled OldData, that we want to mirror in a second disk of the same size.
    Note: The disk that you will use to mirror the existing disk must be unallocated. If it is not, then right-click on it and select Delete Volume… to mark it as unallocated. This will destroy any data on that drive.
    Right-click on the existing disk that you want to mirror. Select Add Mirror
    Select the disk that you want to use to mirror the existing disk’s data and press Add Mirror.
    You will be warned that this process will change the existing disk from basic to dynamic. Note that this process will not delete any data on the disk.
    The new disk will be marked as a mirror, and it will starting copying data from the existing drive to the new one.
    Eventually the drives will be synced up (it can take a while), and any data added to the E: drive will exist on both physical hard drives.

  • Using ClearType Tuner – Windows 7 Tips

    Using ClearType Tuner in Windows 7

    Back in Windows XP there was an important Power toy created to enable ClearType for users of LCD screens. Now it’s standard in Windows 7, but you may not know about it. So let’s take a look.

    Access Clear Type in Windows 7
    Click on the Start Menu and type cleartype into the search box and hit Enter.
    It should be enabled by default, but if not just check the box to enable it.
    Now, in the next step, you can enable it for two or more monitors if you have them. Or you could select an individual one if it works best for one but not another. Some people might want it turned off if they have a CRT and a LCD monitor for example.
    Now you can go through the wizard and pick out what resolution works best for the monitor(s) you choose.
    Just select the text in each step that looks best for you.

    Then finish it out.

  • Add Internet Search to Start Menu – Windows 7 Tips

    Add Internet Search to Start Menu

    The new Search feature in Windows 7 has greatly improved for navigating your PC. But how neat would it be to search the Internet from the Start Menu? Here we show you how to do it.

    This method uses Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7.
    Using Group Policy Editor
    First type gpedit.msc into the Search box in the Start Menu and hit Enter.
    When Group Policy Editor opens navigate to 
    User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar. 
    Then double-click on Add Search Internet link to Start Menu.
    In the screen that comes up select Enable, click OK, and close out of Group Policy Editor.
    Now when you want to search for something in the Start Menu, you’ll see an extra link so you can search the Internet.
    Then your search query will open up in your favorite browser.