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Category: Windows 7 support

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create Administrator Mode Shortcuts Without UAC Prompts in Windows 7 or Vista


    Create the Scheduled Task Item
    Open up Task Scheduler through the start menu search box (usually you can just type task), and then on the right-hand side click the “Create Task” link:

    Note: The Screen Shots shown below are for Vista but it is the same in Windows 7 as well.
    The first thing you need to do is give the task a short, simple name, preferably without any spaces in it. Then check the box for “Run with highest privileges” (very important)
    Now switch to the Actions tab, click the New button, and then browse down to the application that you are trying to start.
    Close out of the dialogs by clicking the OK button, which should create the new task in the list. You can right-click on it and choose “Run” at this point, simply to make sure that it launches the application the way you were expecting.
    At this point our scheduled tasks setup is done, so you can close out of that if you want as long as you remember the name that you used for the task.
    Create the Shortcut to Start the Task
    Right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.
    Now here’s where the real magic happens we need to add a command that will run the scheduled task, passing in the name of the task that we used. As you can see, I used runregedit as the name for the task.
    Make sure you enter the task name like this, replacing the capitalized letters for the name of your task. (It’s not case sensitive)
        schtasks /run /tn “TASKNAMEINQUOTES”
    Now give your shortcut some useful name, and then click next to create it.
    At this point you should have a shortcut that will launch the application in administrator mode.
    But we can tweak it a bit more… open up the properties for the shortcut, and then change the Run drop-down to “Minimized” (to hide the schtasks command line utility), and then click on Change Icon.
    So now you have a nice looking icon that launches an application in Administrator mode with no prompts.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut to Troubleshoot Windows 7 Using System Maintenance

    There might be times when Windows 7 seems to not be working correctly and one way to help troubleshoot is use System Maintenance. Rather than going through several menus to access it, we’ll create a shortcut to it.


    To get to System Maintenance you can go through several menus in Control Panel to launch it. If you want easier access to it, we’ll show you how to create a shortcut to it. It’s a basic troubleshooting feature that can clean unused files, perform maintenance tasks, and help prevent problems with your PC.
    Create Shortcut to Troubleshoot Using System Maintenance
    Right-click an empty area on your Desktop and select New \ Shortcut.
    Now type in the following path in the location field.
        %systemroot%\system32\msdt.exe -id MaintenanceDiagnostic
    In the next step name the shortcut something that will help you remember what it’s for. Here we are using Troubleshoot System Maintenance.
    Now we have the new shortcut icon on the desktop.
    Double click on the icon and it will bring you directly to System Maintenance and you can begin using the wizard to search for problems, if you want check the box to apply repairs automatically.
    Luckily on our system nothing was needed to be changed or updated.
    If you do experience problems, you can get a full report on what issues were found.
    Then if you want you can easily add it to the Taskbar with a drag and drop.
    If you’re experiencing problems on your Windows 7 PC or want to prevent them, running System Maintenance is a good place to start. By creating a shortcut to it, you’ll save a few mouse clicks for easier access to it.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Open Task Manager’s “All Users” View in Windows 7

    Create the Task Manager Shortcut
    Right-click on the desktop or elsewhere, and then choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.
    Then in the shortcut location box, add the following command:
        taskmgr.exe
    Once you’ve added the command, go to the next screen and give the shortcut a useful name – I chose “Task Manager (All Users)” as the name since it seemed descriptive enough.
    Now right-click on the shortcut and open up Properties, where you can add a shortcut key if you’d like (note that the shortcut needs to be on the desktop or in the start menu for this to work)
    And now the most important step, click the Advanced button and choose the “Run as administrator” checkbox.
    Now you’ll have a shortcut that will immediately open up Task Manager to the all users view (after a UAC prompt).

  • Windows7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Switch Power Plans

    Have you ever wanted to be able to just hit a hotkey that tells Windows to switch from High Performance down to Power Saver? Sure, you can use the tray icon, but since we like to customize things there’s always another way.

    Using the powercfg Command

    Windows 7 and Vista come with the powercfg command that you can use from the command prompt, and we’ll have to use this tool to figure out the GUID—the internal ID that Windows uses—for the plan itself.

    To find the power scheme GUID, simply open up a command prompt and type in the following:

    powercfg –list

    As you can see in the screenshot, you can use the –setactive argument to actually switch between the plans from the command line, which is how we’ll create the shortcut.

    Creating the Shortcut

    Next you’ll need to create a shortcut by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing New \ Shortcut.

    You’ll want to use the following in the application shortcut, replacing the GUID with your own:

        powercfg -setactive

    Note how it looks in the screenshot… yours should look the same.

    You can repeat the same thing to create another shortcut for one of the other power plans.

    Customize the Shortcut

    Now that we have some fancy shortcuts, you can make them look better by tweaking the icon, and then assign a shortcut key. There are a number of really great icons in the following Windows DLL file:

        C:\Windows\System32\powercpl.dll

    And you can assign a shortcut key to switch power schemes on the fly.

    Once you’re all done, you should have two new icons, ready to use.

  • Windows7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Eject the CD/DVD Drive

    Create a Shortcut to Eject the CD/DVD Drive

    Right-click on the desktop or elsewhere and choose New \ Shortcut.

    In the location box, put the full path to the nircmd.exe file that you downloaded, and append the “cdrom open” command to the end of it, adjusting the drive letter to match your disc drive:

        “C:\path\to\nircmd.exe” cdrom open D:

    Note the location of the quotes.. if you are using a path with spaces in it, you need to make sure the quotes are only around the path to the executable, and the arguments should be placed after the quote.

    Give the shortcut a meaningful name, like Eject CD or something like that, and you’ll have a new icon (read below on how to use the cd-rom icon as shown)

    You can move the icon to anywhere you’d like… double-clicking on it will immediately eject the drive.

    Create a Shortcut to Close the CD/DVD Drive

    You can follow the same exact instructions as above, but instead of “cdrom open” just substitute “cdrom close”.

    Assign a Hotkey to the Shortcut

    Now that we have a shortcut, we can assign a hotkey to the shortcut by right-clicking on the icon and choosing Properties. On the Shortcut tab you’ll see a place to assign the Shortcut key:

    Add in the shortcut key and close the dialog. As long as the shortcut is on your desktop you shouldn’t have to restart anything for the hotkey to work.

    Assign an Icon to the Shortcut

    If you click on the Change Icon button in the properties window, you can give the shortcut a more meaningful icon, perhaps the DVD one you see below.

  • Windows7 Tips

    Create Icons to Start the Screensaver on Windows 7

    Create Screensaver Icon

    Right-click on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.

    In order to launch the screensaver, you’ll need to enter the full path to the screensaver file, followed by “/s”

        %systemroot%\system32\Bubbles.scr /s

    You would want to substitute the name of the screensaver where you see “Bubbles.scr” above. Also note that I used %systemroot% instead of C:\windows because not every install uses the C: drive.

    If you don’t know the filename, you can browse down to your system32 folder and then search for “.scr” using the search box:


    You should see all of the names of all the screensavers installed on your system, which you can use in the location field.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut to Put Your Windows Computer into Hibernation

    Putting your Windows computer into Hibernation Mode allows you to save power, and quickly access your desktop again when you need it. Here we show how to create a shortcut to put your PC in Hibernation Mode quickly.
    Note: Here we show how to create the shortcut in Windows 7 and add it to the Taskbar. But creating the shortcut should work in XP and Vista as well.
    Create Shortcut
    Right-click an empty area on your desktop and select New \ Shortcut from the Context Menu.
    In the Create Shortcut window type or copy the following in the location field
        C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll, SetSuspendState 0,1,0
    Now give the shortcut a name such as Hibernate Computer or whatever you want to call it.
    Now you have the shortcut on your desktop, but you might want to change the icon to something else.
    Change Shortcut Icon
    Right-click the shortcut icon and select Properties.
    Select the Shortcut Tab and click the Change Icon button.
    In the Look for icons in this file field copy and past the following then click OK.
        %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll

    This brings up a list of included Windows icons you can choose from. Select whatever you want it to be.
    Now you will see the icon in the Shortcut Properties window, click OK.
    Here we have a nice looking shortcut that you can use to put your machine into Hibernation.
    You can pin the shortcut to the Taskbar for easy access.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut To Group Policy Editor in Windows 7

    If you’re a system administrator and find yourself making changes in Group Policy Editor, you might want to make a shortcut to it. Here we look at creating a shortcut, pinning it to the Taskbar, and adding it to Control Panel.
    Note: Local Group Policy Editor is not available in Home versions of Windows 7.
    Typing gpedit.msc into the search box in the Start menu to access Group Policy Editor can get old fast.
    To create a shortcut, right-click on the desktop and select New \ Shortcut.
    Next type or copy the following path into the location field and click Next.
        c:\windows\system32\gpedit.msc
    Then give your shortcut a name something like Group Policy, or whatever you want it to be and click Finish.
    Now you have your Group Policy shortcut.
    If you want it on the Taskbar just drag it there to pin it.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Mute the System Volume in Windows

    Have you ever had music playing loudly on your speakers when the phone rings and then you fumble for the speaker switch or the pause button on your music playing application while trying to answer the phone? Instead of bothering with that, I’ve always simply created a shortcut to mute the system volume instantly with the press of a key.
    Of course this isn’t terribly helpful if you have a multimedia keyboard with a mute button on-board, but some computers just don’t have one, or you don’t want to run the software required to make the keys work.
    Create the Shortcut
    In order to mute the system volume, we’ll use a small utility called NirCmd that we’ve mentioned numerous times before, since it’s the swiss army knife of useful shortcuts.
    Right-click on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.
    In the location box, you’ll want to browse down to the location of where you saved nircmd.exe, and then add “mutesysvolume 2″ as arguments. You’ll probably want to put quotes around the path to the executable, like this:
        “C:\Path\To\nircmd.exe” mutesysvolume 2

    Give the shortcut a useful name like “Toggle Mute”, and then open up the properties of the shortcut. Here you can assign a shortcut key, or you can change the icon to something else.
    I found the speaker icon in the following file, but you can choose another icon if you’d like:
        %SystemRoot%\System32\SndVol.exe
    Remember when using a shortcut key, you’ll want to keep the shortcut on the desktop or move it into the Start menu.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey for the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog

    If you often use removable USB devices like a flash drive, you are probably already familiar with the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon that sits in the system tray. The problem for many people is that the icon is tiny, and clicking it just right to bring up the menu is a pain. Can’t we just make a shortcut to bring up the dialog?
    Of course you can, and it’s really quite easy. Easier than trying to click the tiny icon in the tray.
    Create a Shortcut to the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog
    Right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut:
    Then paste in the following into the location box:
    RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
    Give it a name, and you’ll have a shortcut icon that will pull up the Safely Remove Hardware dialog.
    Assign a Shortcut Key
    If you want to assign a shortcut key to this dialog, you can right-click the icon and open the properties dialog, then go to the Shortcut tab.
    Add in the shortcut key and close the dialog. As long as the shortcut is on your desktop you shouldn’t have to restart anything for the hotkey to work. You can also move the shortcut to another folder, for instance your quick launch bar.