bamleo

Category: technical support

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Disable Control Panel with a Registry Tweak

    <!–[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–>You can also tweak the Registry to disable Control Panel. This will work with all versions of Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Making changes in the Registry is not recommended for beginners and you should create a Restore Point, or backup the Registry before making any changes.

    Type regedit into the Search box in the Start menu and hit Enter.

    In Registry Editor navigate to 
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer. 
    Then right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value.

    Name the value NoControlPanel. Then right-click on the new Value and click Modify.

    In the Value data field change the value to “1” then click OK. Close out of Registry Editor and restart the machine to complete the process.

    When you get back from reboot, you’ll notice Control Panel is no longer listed in the Start menu.

    If a user tries to access it by typing Control Panel into the Search box in the Start menu.

    They will get the following message indicating it is restricted, just like if you were to disable it via Group Policy.

    If you want to re-enable the Control Panel, go back into the Registry and change the NoControlPanel value back to “0” then reboot the computer.


  • Share Windows 7 With Windows XP Wireless Laptops

    How to Share Windows 7 With Windows XP Wireless Laptops
    If you want to share files, folders or even entire hard drives stored on your Windows 7 computer with a wireless Windows XP laptop computer, you can do so natively within your operating system. Sharing these files can be completed by altering the properties of the file or directory, which will immediately make them available to not just your Windows XP wireless laptop but all computers that are connected to the same wireless network.
    1). Right-click on the file or folder on your Windows 7 laptop that you want to share with your Windows XP laptop.
    2). Click “Share With.”
    3). Click “Specific People.”
    4). Click “Add.” Select the computer name of the Windows XP laptop that you want to share your selected file or folder with.
    5). Click the “Share” button to share your content between your Windows 7 laptop and your Windows XP laptop.

  • Change Startup Programs in Windows 7

    When Windows starts up, it automatically loads a number of programs, many of which you may not need. As you install more and more programs, this list can continue to grow.

    The following guide can help you improve your computer’s startup times by decreasing the number of startup programs. This will be done be disabling certain programs from running as windows starts up.

    Instructions

    Add a Link to the Startup Folder

    1. Click the Windows “Start” button and select “All Programs.” Right-click the “Startup” folder in the menu and select “Open All Users.” This option opens the folder for all users on the computer. Choose “Explore” to open the folder for the currently logged-in user only.
       
    2. Right-click the folder or file you want started when the computer boots. Select “Copy” from the menu.
       
    3. Right-click any white space in the “Startup” folder you opened in Step 1. Select “Paste” from the menu list. The program will now open the next time you start the computer.
    Change Current Startup Programs
    1. Click the Windows “Start” button and type “msconfig” in the search text box. This opens the System Configuration console.
       
    2. Click the “Startup” tab. This gives you a view of all the programs installed as startup options on your computer.
       
    3. Check boxes of the applications you want to start when you boot the computer. For programs you no longer want to start, clear the check box.
       
    4. Click “Apply” and close the configuration window. A popup window will ask if you want to reboot the computer. Click “Restart” to reboot the computer and save the changes.

  • Adding My Computer to Toolbar: Windows 7




                             In this article we are going to learn how to add MY computer location has new tool bar in Windows 7. 

    you like to have the quickest access possible to folders on my desktop, which usually means putting something onto the taskbar if possible. You can add the Computer menu as a folder on the taskbar for the easiest access to your drives. You could also use this tip for any folder you want.

    To add a folder to the taskbar, just right-click on the taskbar and choose the Toolbars menu, and then click on New Toolbar.

    Just find the folder that you want… in this instance we’ll select the Computer icon and then click on Select Folder.

    Now you can see the Computer folder right there on the taskbar. If you click the little arrows it will pop up and let you browse through all your drives.


    I always add the Desktop to the toolbar as well.


  • How to Add a Volume Device In Windows 7


    By default, Microsoft Windows 7 displays several icons in the lower right corner of the PC desktop (also called the “System Tray”), including the Volume Control icon. However — especially at first boot up of the Windows 7 operating system — you may find that one or all icons are missing from the “System Tray.” Use the Registry Editor utility in Windows 7 to quickly resolve issue and enable the Volume device icon to appear in the “System Tray.”
    1). Log in to the Windows 7 computer, using the credentials of an Administrator account on the computer. Click the “Start” button, then click “Search” and enter “regedit” in the “Search” box and press the “Enter” key.
    2). Navigate to the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify” directory in the “Registry Editor” window that appears. Click the “IconStreams” item once to highlight it and then click the “Edit” menu at the top of the “Registry Editor” window. Click “Delete” in the menu that appears and click “Yes” to confirm deletion.
    3). Click the “PastIconsStream” item once to highlight the item and then click the “”Edit” menu at the top of the “Registry Editor” window, click “Delete” in the menu that appears and click “Yes” to confirm and delete the item. Click the red “X” at the top right of the “Registry Editor” window to close the window.
    4). Right-click the Task Bar and click “Task Manager” in the menu that appears. Click the “Processes” tab in the “Task Manager” window that appears. Find the “explorer.exe” process in the list of processes and click on it once and then click the “End Process” button. Click “End Process” again to shut down the “explorer.exe” process. Click “File” in the “Task Manager” window and click “Run” in the menu that appears. Type “explorer” in the “Run” box and press the “Enter” key. Click the “File” menu in the “Task Manager” window and then click “Exit Task Manager.”
    5). Click the “Start” button on the PC desktop and click the “Search” box and type “Customize icons” in the “Search” box and tap the “Enter” key. Click the “Customize icons on the task bar” item that appears and click “Turn system icons on or off” and then set the “Volume” to “On.” Click the “OK” button and then click “OK” to save the settings.

  • Changing Library icon: Windows 7



                 In this article we are going to learn how to change your windows 7 library icons with easiest way possible. This article gives you steps to change library icons and these steps are easy and simple to perform on our own.


    Have you ever wanted to swap out the Windows default icons with something else? The new Windows 7 library icons can be changed with a hack to a text file, but there’s an easier way. We’ll explain both.
    Not sure what we’re talking about? Open up Windows Explorer, and check out the Libraries.

    For today’s lesson, we’ll teach you how to change those icons with something else. (It’ll also work for your own custom Libraries).
    Change Library Icons the Easy Way
    To change the icons out the easy way, we’ll use a tiny tool called Library Icon Changer from a user over at deviantART. Thanks to Pratik for pointing us towards this tool!
    Once you’ve opened up the tool, you’ll be presented with list of icons and libraries… just click on the Library on the right-hand side, and then choose the icon on the left, and click “Select Icon from dll”. You can also use the Select new Icon from file instead, if you don’t want to use a default Windows icon.

    Note that if you want to restore the icon to default, you have to click on the Library first on the right-hand side, and then click the Restore default icon button.
    Another note is that if you want to change out the DLL, you’ll need to select it, and then hit the Enter key.

    Once you’ve swapped out your icon, it usually shows up right away, or you can Refresh with F5 (though logging off or restarting explorer.exe might be required).


    Change Libraries the Manual Way
    Don’t feel like messing with a piece of software from some person somewhere? You can make these changes manually with nothing more than Notepad. Just paste the following into the start menu search box, or Windows Explorer location bar:
        ” %appdata%\microsoft\windows\libraries “
    Then drag one of the icons from Windows Explorer over to a Notepad window to open up the file.

    Inside the file, you’ll see an iconReference line, or if you don’t see it, you’ll want to add one like so:
        C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll,301
    The data in the middle is the path, either to the icon (.ico) file, or if you are referencing a DLL file, you’ll need to add the comma and number position of the icon in the file.

    And now you’ve learned how to swap out the icons. Awesome, eh? Alright, well it’s not that awesome. But still fun geeky information to have.

  • Add Disk CleanUp to Right Click on a Drive

    Disk Clean up is a utility that helps us in cleaning unwanted items on a disk or hard drive volume.  Now we shall see how to add this utility to the right click menu when we right on a particular drive in windows 7.


    We need to edit the registry to enable this. The steps for editing the registry and getting the Disk Clean up utility in the right click menu for disk partitions are as follows:
    Open the registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\Shell

    Create a key under cmd by right clicking on it and click on New>key and name it as Diskcleanup
    Right click on that and again create a key and name it as command

    Change the data value on the right side to cleanmgr.exe /d %1
    Now you can see the clean up utility in the right click menu for every drive. 


  • Show menus by Default in IE9

    IE9 is an application that requires windows 7 as the operating system requirements. So it can be installed only on windows 7. So now we are going to see how do we get the menus in IE9 Beta. We need to create a registry key to enable the menus on IE9 Beta by default.

    Steps for creating a registry key that gives menus in IE9 by default:

    1) Open the registry editor by typing the command regedit in the run command.

    2) Navigate to the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft

    3) Create a key under Microsoft key and name it as Internet Explorer.

    4) Create another registry key under Internet explorer with a name Main

     

    5) Now right click on the empty space on the right and create a DWORD value with a name Always Show Context Menus and enter the data value as 1. 

      

    When you first open it you won’t see the Menu Bar, so hit Alt or Alt+T again and it will come up and will always be there from now on anytime you launch IE 9.

  • Disabling system tray: Windows 7

                 In this article we are going to see how to disable the system tray completely  If you are the type of person that never uses any applications in the system tray, you might be interested in this registry tweak to turn it off entirely. I can’t imagine using my own system this way, but we’re all about providing information.


    Note: that you could also use this in reverse… if your system tray is disabled and you don’t know why, you should check this registry key.

    You can even remove the clock if you’d like, by right-clicking on the taskbar and choosing Properties. It’s on the Notification Area tab.
    Manual Registry tweak:
    Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then navigate down to the following key (Create if it doesn’t exist):
        “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer”

    Create a new 32-bit DWORD value in the right hand pane with these values:
        * Name: NoTrayItemsDisplay
        * Value: 1
    You will have to logoff and back on for this to take effect. To remove the hack, just delete the key, or change the value to 0.
    Note that disabling the system tray doesn’t actually prevent system tray apps from running, it just hides them. You should still disable any applications that aren’t needed.
    Update: Note that the same registry key may exist in more than one location, so if you are trying to reverse this hack, you should search the registry for NoTrayItemsDisplay.
    Note that this tip should work in all versions of Windows like windows XP and Windows 7 or vista.

  • Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

    Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

    In Windows 7, we’ve uncovered several new sets of essential time-saving shortcuts that will make your mouse jealous with neglect.
    Alt + P

    In Windows Explorer, activate an additional file preview pane to the right side of the window with this new shortcut. This panel is great for previewing images in your photos directory.

    Windows + + (plus key)
    Windows + – (minus key)
    Pressing the Windows and plus or minus keys activates the Magnifier, which lets you zoom in on the entire desktop or open a rectangular magnifying lens to zoom in and out of parts of your screen. You can customize the Magnifier options to follow your mouse pointer or keyboard cursor. Keep in mind that so far, the Magnifier only works when Aero desktop is enabled.
    Windows + Up
    Windows + Down
     If a window is not maximized, pressing Windows + Up will fill it to your screen. Windows + Down will minimize that active window. Unfortunately, pressing Windows + up again while a window is minimized won’t return it to its former state.
    Windows + Shift + Up
    Similar to the shortcut above, hitting these three keys while a window is active will stretch it vertically to the maximum desktop height. The width of the window will however stay the same. Pressing Windows + Down will restore it to its previous size.
    Windows + Left
    Windows + Right
      One of the new features of Windows 7 is the ability to automatically make a window fill up half of your screen by dragging to the left or right. This pair of shortcuts performs the same function without your mouse. Once a window is fixed to one side of the screen, you can repeat the shortcut to flip it to the other side. This is useful if you’re extending a desktop across multiple monitors, which prevents you from executing this trick with a mouse.
    Windows + Home
    This shortcut performs a similar function to hovering over a window’s peek menu thumbnail in the Taskbar. The active window will stay on your desktop while every other open application is minimized. Pressing this shortcut again will restore all the other windows.
    Windows + E
     Automatically opens up a new Explorer window to show your Libraries folder.
    Windows + P
    Manage your multiple-monitor more efficiently with this handy shortcut. Windows + P opens up a small overlay that lets you configure a second display or projector. You can switch from a single monitor to dual-display in either mirror or extend desktop mode.
    Windows + Shift + Left
    Windows + Shift + Right
    If you are using two or more displays (and who isn’t, these days?), memorize this shortcut to easily move a window from one screen to the other. The window retains its size and relative position on the new screen, which his useful when working with multiple documents. Utilize that real estate!
    Windows + [Number]
    Programs (and new instances) pinned to your Taskbar can be launched by hitting Windows and the number corresponding to its placement on the Taskbar. Windows + 1, for example, launches the first application, while Windows + 4 will launch the fourth. We realize that this is actually one key-press more than just clicking the icon with your mouse, but it saves your hand the trouble of leaving the comfort of the keyboard.
    Windows + T
    Like Alt + Tab (still our all time favorite Windows specific shortcut), Windows + T cycles through your open programs via the Taskbar’s peek menu.
    Windows + Space

    This combo performs the same function as moving your mouse to the bottom right of the Taskbar. It makes every active window transparent so you can view your desktop. The windows only remain transparent as long as you’re holding down the Windows key.
    Ctrl + Shift + Click
    Hold down Ctrl and Shift while launching an application from the Taskbar or start menu to launch it with full administrative rights.
    Ctrl + Click
    Hold down Ctrl while repeatedly clicking a program icon in the Taskbar will toggle between the instances of that application, like multiple Firefox windows