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Category: TechnicalSupport

  • Windows 7 Tips

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    Make Windows 7 or Vista Log On Automatically
    If you are just running a home computer for gaming or something unimportant, you might not want to have to log in every single time you reboot your computer. There’s an easy tweak that will let you autologin.

    First, we’ll need to get to the Advanced User Accounts Control Panel to get to this setting. I think there’s a registry tweak as well, but that seems like too much work.
    Type in netplwiz into the start menu search box, hit enter, and you’ll see this screen:
    Note: If that doesn’t work, you can type in control userpasswords2 instead.
    Uncheck the box that says “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer”, and then hit Apply. You’ll see a username and password box. Enter in the appropriate information here and hit OK:
    Note that these steps work perfectly on XP as well.

  • Windows 7 Tips

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    Create a Shortcut to Search Your IE Favorites With Windows 7 or Vista Search
    Open up your User folder and you should see your Favorites folder inside it. Double-click to open the Favorites folder.

    Now enter in the following into the search box to find all bookmarks in the last hundred years or so:
        date:>1/1/1900
    Click the Save Search button on the toolbar, and then give it a friendly name like Search Favorites. You’ll see that the default save location is User Folder \ Searches.
    Now when you browse to that folder you’ll see a search folder called Search Favorites. Note that you can create a shortcut to this anywhere you’d like… the Quick Launch bar, for instance.
    Once you open up the Search Folder, you can simply type in your search into the search box to find whatever you are looking for.
    You can change the view to show details via the Views menu.

  • Windows 7 Tips

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    Create Shutdown / Restart / Lock Icons in Windows 7 or Vista
    If you dislike the new Windows Vista shutdown menu, you are probably in the majority. An alternative option is to create icons that will let you shut down, lock, or restart your computer without having to mess with that stupid popup menu.

    Of course, Windows 7 makes the shutdown menu a lot better, but if you want a shortcut elsewhere or to assign a hotkey, this should help you out.
    First right-click on the desktop, choose New and then Shortcut.
    In the shortcut location box, you’ll need to enter the correct command, which I’ve listed for you below.
    Shutdown Computer
        Shutdown.exe -s -t 00
    Restart Computer
        Shutdown.exe -r -t 00
    Lock Workstation
        Rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation
    Hibernate Computer
        rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll,SetSuspendState
    Sleep Computer
        rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0
    When you’ve clicked next on the above dialog, you’ll be asked to name the shortcut. Probably best to name it according to the right function.
    After you click Finish, you should now have a new icon that you can double-click to immediately shutdown, restart, or lock your computer.
    Change Shortcut Icon
    The default icon is really ugly, and if you want to have separate shortcuts for each function you might want to change the icon. Right-click on the icon and choose properties.
    Click the Change Icon button, and then you can pick from the available icons in the system, or you can use the Browse button to pick an icon you downloaded off the web.
    Note that you can drag them to your quick launch bar if you’d prefer to have them there.

  • Auto Shut Down -Windows 7 Tips

    Make Your PC Shut Down at Night (But Only When You’re Not Using It)
    If you normally like to power off your PC when you’re not using it, do you ever forget and leave it on? Here’s how to configure Windows to automatically power down at night, but only if you’re not using the PC at the time.

     

    To accomplish this, we’ll setup a Task Scheduler job that tells the computer to shut down.
    Create a Task Scheduler Job to Shut Down the PC
    You’ll need to open up Task Scheduler to create the new job, so open it up and click the Create Task link on the right-hand side.
    Now you’ll want to give the task a name, and make sure to check the box for “Run with highest privileges”, since the shutdown utility requires admin access.
    Now switch to the Triggers tab, click New, and then setup a schedule that makes sense for you, like every night at midnight.
    Now flip over to the Actions tab, click New, and then enter shutdown into the Program box, and /S into the parameters box. If you want to force a shutdown and kill every app, you can use /S /F to force it to happen right away.
    Next head to the Conditions tab, and make sure to check the box to only start the task if the computer is idle for more than x minutes. You can also choose to stop the task if the PC isn’t idle to help make sure it doesn’t kick in if you are on the PC.
    Lastly, head to the Settings tab, and you can choose to restart the task every 30 minutes if the task fails—that way, if you are on the PC for a while past the normal time, the job will start up later on and shut down the PC.
    Once you’re done, your PC will shut down automatically.

  • Libraries – Windows 7 Tips

    Manage Files and Documents Easily with Libraries in Windows 7
    In previous versions of Windows it can be a tedious task managing music, photos, documents and other files that are scattered in different directories on your hard drive.  Today we take a look at the new Libraries feature in Windows 7 that allows you to organize folders from multiple locations in one spot.

     

    Using Libraries
    To access your Libraries click on Start then your user name to open up your personal folder.
    Now in the left pane click on Libraries to view the four default Libraries which are Music, Pictures, Videos, and Documents.
    Libraries show files that are stored in different locations on your computer as in this example of a Music Library.
    You don’t have to limit yourself to just the four default Libraries by creating your own.  When you click on Libraries in the left pane click on the New Libraries button.
    A new Library comes up just like a new folder where you can label it.
    When you go into your new Library you are prompted to add new folders and files to it.
    If you want to add new folder locations to any of the Libraries just click on the hyperlink that shows the current number of locations.
    You can then click the Add button to include other locations on the computer.
    Right-click on the Library icon and select Properties and you can include a folder from here.
    Also, while your navigating through explorer you can Right-click a folder and include it in a library.
    This might seem like a subtle change to the user interface but it’s effective and makes navigating files and folders much easier.
    Libraries will allow you to share your folders and files with your Homegroup network easier as well.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Change Show Desktop Icon
    Now we have our icon on the Taskbar and you can move it wherever is convenient to you, and clicking on it will indeed show your desktop. However, you might want to change the icon to something more appealing.

    • One option is to open the Show Desktop icon Properties again and select the Change Icon button.
    • When we did this we got the following message Click OK and it will open up to %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll.
    Where you can go through the list of icons included by default.
    • You might have to do a reboot for the icon to show up correctly, and here is our final result where we have it in the Quick Launch bar and the Taskbar. Of course the regular Show Desktop in the lower right corner as well.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Move the Show Desktop Icon to Taskbar in Windows 7

    Pin Show Desktop Icon to the Taskbar
    You might not care to get the Quick Launch icon back in Windows 7, but would like to pin the icon to the Taskbar where you want it. Unfortunately the process isn’t as easy as a simple drag and drop.

    • Right-click the Desktop and select Text Document.
    • Now name it Show Desktop.exe and click Yes when the warning message comes up.
    Note: You will need to have file extensions viewable in order for this to work.
    • Right-click on the dummy exe file we just made and select Pin to Taskbar.
    • Now create your own Show Desktop icon by typing or pasting the following code into Notepad.
        [Shell]
        Command=2
        IconFile=explorer.exe,3
        [Taskbar]
        Command=ToggleDesktop
    When you save it, make sure to select All Files in Notepad.
    • Then save it as Show Desktop.scf and place it in the following folder.
        C:\Users\computername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
    Note: If you don’t see the folders like AppData make sure you have Show hidden files, folders, and drives selected in Folder Options.
    • Next right-click on the Show Desktop.exe icon we pinned to the Taskbar, then right-click Show Desktop and select Properties.
     
    • Enter the following into the Target field under the Shortcut tab.
    C:\Users\computername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar\Show Desktop.scf
    Note: In the path change “computername” to the actual name of your computer for both steps.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Move the Show Desktop Icon to Quick Launch in Windows 7
    If you aren’t a fan of scrolling your pointer over to the lower right corner of your monitor to Show the Desktop, we have a cool tweak that will let you create a Show Desktop icon in the Quick Launch.

    If you want to easily get access to the Desktop in Windows 7 you’ve undoubtedly noticed they moved it to the lower right corner. This can be annoying if you have a dual monitors, or even a large monitor that is 22” or higher.
    There are a few ways you can go about it and we’ll take a look at them and you can choose which method works best for you.
    First let’s look at how to put it back where it used to be in earlier versions of Windows. One of the easiest ways is to Add the Quick Launch Bar to the Windows 7 Taskbar.
    After restoring the Quick Launch Bar, you should see the Show Desktop icon. Then just move the icon to where you want it in the Quick Launch bar. For example, here we moved it along with the Switch Between Windows icon next to the IE icon.

  • 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.