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Category: TechnicalSupport

  • Tune Up Windows 7

    Change Process Priorities to Tune Your System
    SUMMARY: Determine which processes should get the most attention in your Windows 7 system.

     

    Is a particular program or process running too slow on your Windows 7 system? If another program or process is less essential yet taking too much of your CPU time, you can lower its priority and optionally raise the priority of the more essential process.

    1. Right-click on an empty area of the Windows 7 Taskbar.
    2. Select “Start Task Manager“.
    (Or skip steps 1 and 2 and just press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager.)
    3. The multi-tabbed “Windows Task Manager” should appear. Make sure the “Applications” tab is selected.
    4. If the process you need to change is linked to an application, right-click it and choose “Go to Process” from the pop-up menu that appears.
    5. Otherwise, click the “Processes tab” to find a process you need to change.
    6. Right-click a process and select “Set Priority“. If you cannot find the process that needs its priority changed, click the “Show processes from all users” button. You may have to confirm your action via User Account Control.
    7. From here you can select from the following possible priorities (highest to lowest):
    * Realtime
    * High
    * Above Normal
    * Normal
    * Below Normal
    * Low
    8. If you are sure you want to change the process priority, click the “Change priority” button when prompted.

     

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Launch a Folder or All Folders as a Separate Process
    SUMMARY: To prevent a crash in one Explorer folder from taking down other folders and the Desktop, open folders in a separate process in Windows 7.

    Normally when you open folders in Windows 7 via Windows Explorer, the folders are all opened in the same explorer.exe process. While this reduces memory usage, if one folder causes a crash or if Explorer hangs and you have to manually kill the process, all folders will crash and close. Plus, you may lose your desktop icons and the Taskbar. Though this should not normally occur, using many context-menu extensions, memory or hard drive problems, and other issues may cause crashes, and they may occur seemingly-randomly.
    Having this all close simultaneously can be a nuisance. Thus you can open folders in a new explorer.exe process on a case-by-case basis (useful if opening a particular folder always causes a crash), or force all folders to open as a new process.

    Case-by-case
    Hold down the Shift key. Right-click a folder and select “Open in new process“.
    For all newly opened folders
    1. Click the “Start” button, type folder options and click the “Folder Options” link that appears.
    2. When the “Folder Options” multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the “View” tab.
    3. Underneath “Advanced settings“, scroll down and check “Launch folder windows in a separate process“.
    4. Click “OK” to close the dialog box.

     

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Display Downloads on Start Menu
    SUMMARY: Easily access website downloads from the Windows 7 Start Menu.

    By default, when you download applications and most other files on a Windows 7 machine using Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer, these files are placed in your “Downloads” directory. This is located at c:\users\YOUR_USER_NAME\Downloads.
    If desired, you can make downloads easier to access by placing a link to this folder directly from your Start Menu. Or, allow the Start Menu to open up to a menu showing each download, allowing you to access or delete them as desired.

    1. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar and choose “Properties“.
    2. The “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the “Start Menu” tab.
    3. Click the “Customize” button.
    4. The “Customize Start Menu” dialog box appears. Underneath “Downloads” click the “Display as a link” or “Display as a menu” radio button.
    5. Click “OK” on the dialog boxes to close them.

     

  • Windows 7 Tips – Administrative Tools

    Add Administrative Tools to Start Menu
    SUMMARY: Make Windows 7 Administrative Tools such as the Event Viewer, Services, and Task Scheduler easier to access from Windows 7‘s Start Menu.

    Windows 7 comes built-in with many Administrative Tools to start and stop system services, manage scheduled tasks, adjust firewall settings, manage hard drive partitions, and more. By default, unless you type the name of a tool or Administrative Tools directly into the Start Menu, the main way to access these tools is via a link in the “System and Security” section of the Control Panel.
    If you frequently access these tools, you might find it easier to add a link to them via the “All Programs” menu of the Start Menu. Or, for even easier access, provide a link directly from the right side of the Start Menu.

    1. Right-click an empty area of the Windows 7 Taskbar and choose “Properties“.
    2. The “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the “Start Menu” tab.
    3. Click the “Customize” button.
    4. The “Customize Start Menu” dialog box appears. Scroll down to “System administrative tools” and choose from the following radio buttons:

    • Display on the All Programs menu
    • Display on the All Programs menu and the Start menu
    • Don’t display this item (default)
    5. Click “OK” on the dialog boxes to close them.

      

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Calculate Fuel Economy

    SUMMARY: Calculate fuel economy, distance, and fuel used in gallons or liters in Windows 7.

    For accounting purposes, it may be necessary to calculate a vehicle’s true fuel economy based on its distance and fuel used. Or, you may need to calculate a vehicle’s expected versus actual fuel usage based on the distance and manufacturer quoted fuel economy. To perform these calculations in gallons and liters (litres) you do not need to visit websites or download additional software – just use the Windows 7 calculator.

    1. Open the Calculator – click the Start button, select “All Programs“, “Accessories“, then “Calculator“.
    2. The Windows Calculator appears. Select “View“, then “Worksheets“, then one of the two worksheets to perform calculations involving miles or liters (litres):
    * Fuel economy (mpg)
    * Fuel economy (L/100 km)

    3. A fuel economy worksheet pane will appear to the right of the main calculator. From here you can perform three types of calculations – click the pull-down underneath “Select the value you want to calculate” to choose:
    * Distance
    * Fuel economy
    * Fuel used

     

    4. Underneath, enter the needed values that will depend on the type of calculation.
    5. Click “Calculate” to display the result. You can select “Edit” – “Copy” to copy the result to the calculator, a Notepad file, or other document.
    For example, if you perform a “Fuel economy (mpg”) calculation, entering in 225 miles and 11 gallons used, the result would be 20.45454545454545.

      

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Stop Highlighting Newly Installed Programs
    SUMMARY: The Windows 7 Start Menu highlights programs recently installed – learn how to disable this behavior.

    As with earlier versions of Windows, the Windows 7 Start Menu highlights the names of newly-installed software. This way it makes it easier to find these applications, assuming that if you install an application you plan on using it soon.
    If you wish to disable this behavior, do the following:

    1. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar and choose “Properties“.
    2. The “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the “Start Menu” tab.
    3. Click the “Customize” button.
    4. The “Customize Start Menu” dialog box appears. Scroll down and uncheck “Highlight newly installed programs“.
    5. Click “OK” on the dialog boxes to close them.

     

  • Features of Windows 7

    Mortgage Calculations

    SUMMARY: Calculate the monthly payment, down payment, purchase price, or years of a mortgage with Windows 7.

    Even in uncertain economic times, some people are still able to purchase condos and houses. These usually require mortgages, and calculating the dollar amounts is a necessity. Instead of relying on web sites or third-party software, let Windows 7 ‘s calculator handle some of the needed tasks.

    1. Open the Calculator – click the Start button, select “All Programs“, “Accessories“, then “Calculator“.

    2. The Windows Calculator appears. Open the “Mortage Worksheets” pane by selecting “View” – “Worksheets” – “Mortgage“.

    3. The Mortgage Worksheets pane appears to the right. Underneath “Select the value you want to calculate“, click the pull-down and choose from the following:
    * Down payment
    * Monthly payment
    * Purchase price
    * Term (years)
    Underneath, enter the necessary information that will depend on the type of calculation desired. Then click the “Calculate” button.

    For example (see the below screenshot), to calculate the monthly payment for a $250,000 mortgage with a $75,000 down payment and a 30-year term at 5% interest, the calculator’s result would be $939.4378402712432 (rounded to $939.44).

    You can highlight the result with your mouse, then select “Edit” – “Copy” (or press Ctrl + C) to copy the resulting value. It can then be pasted into the main calculator pane, Notepad, a word processing document, etc.

     

  • Preview Files Via Preview Pane

    Preview Files from Explorer via the Preview Pane
    SUMMARY: Open the Preview Pane in Explorer windows to show the contents of graphics, text files, and more.
    When opening Explorer folders in Windows 7, you might find it convenient to display the contents of text files, XML files, graphics, and other selected files without having to open them in an external editor or viewer. Thus, Explorer comes with a Preview Pane that can appear on the right side of windows.

    There are multiple ways to turn this feature on or off in an Explorer window:
    1. Near the top-right of the Explorer window, underneath the search box is a button you can click to toggle the preview pane. See the screenshot below for an example.
    2. Click the “Organize” button. Select “Layout“, then check “Preview Pane“.
    3. Or just press Alt + P.

     

  • Creating VHD using Diskpart

    Creating and Attaching VHD using Diskpart utility
    Open the Elevated Command Prompt with Administrator Privileges and type the following commands:
    DISKPART
    CREATE VDISK FILE=”c:\win7\win7.vhd” MAXIMUM=20000
    SELECT VDISK FILE=”c:\win7\win7.vhd”
    ATTACH VDISK
    CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
    ASSIGN LETTER=X
    FORMAT QUICK LABEL=Windows7
    EXIT

    This will create the VHD file of primary partition. You will see the newly attached disk in Disk Management with Drive Letter X:

    Attaching and Detaching VHD in Windows 7
    Right Click on My Computer and Click ‘Manage‘ that will open up Computer Management, in that click on Disk Management. Just like previous part.
    Then Right Click on Disk Management and select ‘Attach VHD’. This will open new windows ‘Attach Virtual Hard Disk‘
    Click on OK and that will attach the existing Virtual Hard Disk. Now, if you don’t want to make write anything on the VHD, we will select the ‘Read-only’ check box.

    And subsequently we will have the attached VHD in explorer.

    How to Detach VHD?
    To detach the VHD simply Right Click on the ‘Disk 1’ (Blue Color) and select ‘Detach VHD’
    After clicking on ‘Detach VHD’ you will be prompt you with ‘Detach Virtual Hard Disk’ message. Click on OK to detach. Also, if you want delete the VHD permanently you can select the Checkbox.
    This way we have seen how can we create new VHDs, attach/detach existing VHDs using Disk Management and Diskpart utility.

  • Windows 7 Shell Commands

    How to See and Use a List of All Windows 7 Shell Commands
    Information
    This article will show you a list of Windows 7 Shell commands that can be used to open certain special folders directly from the Start menu or Run dialog window.
    Tip
    You can find the shell commands listed at this registry location:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\FolderDescriptions
    Note
    The Shell commands that are new in Windows 7 from Vista are bolded in red.
    Here’s How:
    1. Open the Start menu and type in the shell command in bold below for the folder that you want to open, then press Enter. (See screenshot below)
                OR
        2. Open the Run dialog window, and type in the shell command in bold below for the folder that you want to open, then press Enter. (See screenshot below)
    Shell Command
    Path of Folder it Opens
    shell:AddNewProgramsFolder
    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Get Programs
    shell:Administrative Tools
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools
    shell:AppData
    hidden C:\Users\(User-Name)\AppData\Roaming
    shell:AppUpdatesFolder
    Installed Updates
    shell:Cache
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
    shell:CD Burning
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Burn\Burn
    shell:ChangeRemoveProgramsFolder
    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features
    shell:Common Administrative Tools
    hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools
    shell:Common AppData
    hidden C:\ProgramData
    shell:Common Desktop
    C:\Users\Public\Desktop
    shell:Common Documents
    C:\Users\Public\Documents
    shell:CommonDownloads
    C:\Users\Public\Downloads
    shell:CommonMusic
    C:\Users\Public\Music
    shell:CommonPictures
    C:\Users\Public\Pictures
    shell:Common Programs
    hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
    shell:CommonRingtones
    hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Ringtones
    shell:Common Start Menu
    hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
    shell:Common Startup
    hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
    shell:Common Templates
    hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
    shell:CommonVideo
    C:\Users\Public\Videos
    shell:ConflictFolder
    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Sync Center\Conflicts
    shell:ConnectionsFolder
    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network Connections
    shell:Contacts
    C:\Users\User-Name\Contacts
    shell:ControlPanelFolder
    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items
    shell:Cookies
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
    shell:Cookies\Low
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\Low
    shell:CredentialManager
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Credentials
    shell:CryptoKeys
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Crypto
    shell:default Gadgets
    C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets
    shell:desktop
    C:\Users\User-Name\Desktop
    shell:device Metadata Store
    hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceMetadataStore
    shell:documentsLibrary
    Libraries\Documents
    shell:downloads
    C:\Users\User-Name\Downloads
    shell:dpapiKeys
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Protect
    shell:Favorites
    C:\Users\User-Name\Favorites
    shell:Fonts
    C:\Windows\Fonts
    shell:Gadgets
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets
    shell:Games
    Games
    shell:GameTasks
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer
    shell:History
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
    Shell:HomeGroupFolder
    Homegroup
    shell:ImplicitAppShortcuts
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\ImplicitAppShortcuts
    shell:InternetFolder
    32-bit Internet Explorer.
    shell:Links
    C:\Users\User-Name\Links
    shell:Libraries
    Libraries
    shell:Local AppData
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Local
    shell:LocalAppDataLow
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\LocalLow
    shell:MusicLibrary
    Libraries\Music
    shell:My Music
    C:\Users\User-Name\Music
    shell:My Pictures
    C:\Users\User-Name\Pictures
    shell:My Video
    C:\Users\User-Name\Videos
    shell:MyComputerFolder
    Computer
    shell:NetHood
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts
    shell:NetworkPlacesFolder
    Network
    shell:Personal
    C:\Users\User-Name\Documents
    shell:PicturesLibrary
    Libraries\Pictures
    shell:PrintersFolder
    All Control Panel Items\Printers
    shell:PrintHood
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts
    shell:Profile
    C:\Users\User-Name
    shell:ProgramFiles
    C:\Program Files
    shell:ProgramFilesCommon
    C:\Program Files\Common Files
    shell:ProgramFilesCommonX64
    C:\Program Files\Common Files
    shell:ProgramFilesCommonX86
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
    shell:ProgramFilesX64
    C:\Program Files
    shell:ProgramFilesX86
    C:\Program Files (x86)
    shell:Programs
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
    shell:Public
    C:\Public
    shell:PublicGameTasks
    hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer
    shell:PublicSuggestedLocations
    C:\Users\Public\Library\PublicSuggestedLocations
    shell:Quick Launch
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
    shell:Recent
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
    shell:RecycleBinFolder
    Recycle Bin
    shell:ResourceDir
    C:\Windows\Resources
    shell:Ringtones
    hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Ringtones
    shell:SampleMusic
    C:\Users\Public\Music\Sample Music
    shell:SamplePictures
    C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Sample Pictures
    shell:SampleVideos
    C:\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos
    shell:SavedGames
    C:\Users\User-Name\Saved Games
    shell:Searches
    C:\Users\User-Name\Searches
    shell:SearchHomeFolder
    search-ms:
    shell:SendTo
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
    shell:Start Menu
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
    shell:Startup
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
    shell:SyncCenterFolder
    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Sync Center
    shell:SyncResultsFolder
    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Sync Center\Sync Results
    shell:SyncSetupFolder
    Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Sync Center\Sync Setup
    shell:System
    C:\Windows\System32
    shell:SystemCertificates
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SystemCertificates
    shell:SystemX86
    C:\Windows\SysWOW64
    shell:Templates
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
    shell:User Pinned
    hidden C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned
    shell:UsersFilesFolder
    C:\Users\User-Name
    shell:UsersLibrariesFolder
    Libraries
    shell:VideosLibrary
    Libraries\Videos
    shell:Windows
    C:\Windows