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Category: windows 7 suppport

  • 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.


  • Windows 7 : Disabling Mobility center

                     Windows Mobility Center is a fairly useful tool for those of us using Windows 7 on a laptop computer, but might not be for everybody, especially since it takes over the Win+X keyboard shortcut.


    If you would rather disable Windows Mobility Center, all it takes is a single registry tweak.



    Manual Registry Tweak

    Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box and then navigate to the following key, creating it if it doesn’t exist:

    Go to following  registry key:
    “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\MobilityCenter”



    Now create a new 32-bit DWORD entry in the right-hand pane called NoMobilityCenter and give it a value of 1.

  • Windows 7 : Creating System Image

             The new backup utilities in Windows 7 are actually pretty impressive and creating an image will be possible in all versions. Today we take a look at creating a backup image of your machine without the need for a third party utility like Ghost or True Image.
    You just just finished installing a fresh copy of Windows 7 on your computer and have it set up to your liking. One of the first things you should do now is create an image of the disc so in the event of a crash you will be able to restore it to its current state. An image is an exact copy of everything on the drive and will restore it back to its current state. It’s probably best to create an image when everything is clean and organized on your system. This will make the image file smaller and allows you to restore the system with a smooth running set up.
    Creating an Image in Windows 7
    Click on Start go to Getting Started and then select Back up your files.



    Next click on the Create a system image hyper-link.


    Decide where you want to save the image. You can choose an external drive, burn to multiple DVD’s, or store it on a network location.


    You can include other drives if you want as well but remember that will add to the size of the final image.


    At the confirmation screen notice the amount of space the image may take. If something doesn’t look right you can still go back from this point and make adjustments.


    A progress meter is displayed while the images is created and backed up. In this example a disk of about 15GB in size took under 20 minutes backed up to an external drive. Times will vary depending on your system and where you’re backing it up to.




    After the process is complete you get the option to create a system repair disc which you should do and make sure to save it in a secure location.


    When it comes time to restore the image, you will be able to use the System Recovery Options to get the system back.

  • Missing USB Drive in Windows 7

    Sometimes when you plug a USB drive into your machine you won’t see it in Computer or AutoPlay in Windows 7.Now we would take a look at how to change the drive letter so you can can access it.

    The problem with not being able to see your USB drive happens quite often in XP. Our Texperts have pointed out instances, where the same problem can occur in Windows 7 as well. 

    Locate and Access the USB Drive in Windows 7 

    The problem is when you plug in a thumb drive or external USB hard drive…nothing happens. You hear the USB sound but AutoPlay doesn’t run, and when you look in Computer you don’t see the drive. More than likely Windows named the drive to a letter that is already in use.

    To fix the problem right-click on Computer from the Start Menu or Desktop Icon, and select Manage.



    In the Computer Management window, under Storage, click on Disk Management to see a list of drives connected to your machine.



    You should be able to determine which one is the drive you’re trying to access by its size and format type. Here we’re trying to find a 4GB thumb drive. Right-click on the drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.



    Now click on the Change button…



    You can select from a list of drive letters to rename it. Make sure it’s not one already in use or could be in use at some point. Pick a letter toward the end of the alphabet for best results.



    You will be prompted with a warning dialog making sure you want to change the drive letter…click Yes.



    Here you can see we changed the drive from the letter “J” to “U”…





    If you have AutoPlay enabled, you’ll see the familiar screen asking what you want to do with the drive.



    You will also see it in Computer now and be able to access the files and programs from it.





    That’s all there is to it! It’s definitely annoying when you plug in an external USB drive and Windows doesn’t give you access to it right away, but following these steps solves the issue.

  • Run program in Administrator Mode

             Many utilities need to be run as administrator in order to function properly, especially older utilities that haven’t been updated to support Windows 7.All shortcuts in Windows since Vista have a special property that you can set that will allow the application to run as Administrator. This works perfectly for creating a batch file to restart a service, for instance.


    To set this property, just right-click on any shortcut, and click the Advanced button on the Shortcut page to get to the Advanced Properties dialog.



    You’ll see a dialog with a checkbox for “Run as administrator”.



    From now on, the application will always run as administrator if you use the shortcut to launch it. (You’ll be prompted by UAC if you have it enabled in Windows 7).

  • Home group password recovery in Windows 7

                So you’re about to setup your new Windows 7 PC into your Homegroup when you realized that you have no idea what the password is. How do you find it? It’s actually pretty simple, if you know where to look.


    Finding Your Homegroup Password

    Open up Windows Explorer, and then find the Homegroup option in the left-hand navigation pane. Right-click on Homegroup and choose “View the HomeGroup password”


    And there you go, your password in nice bold text—and there’s even a print button.


    Now you have the password and you are all set to setup your home group network

  • Windows 7 Service Pack 1

    A service pack (in short SP) is a collection of updates, fixes and/or enhancements to a software program delivered in the form of a single installable package. It can be a collection of alot of patches available and installing a service pack is easier and less error-prone than installing a high number of patches individually, even more so when updating multiple computers over a network.

    The Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate (RC) is now available to download. This service pack helps keep PCs and servers supported and up to date by providing ongoing improvements to the Windows operating system with security and windows update. This RC is best suited for IT pros, tech enthusiasts, and developers who need to test the service pack.
    It is available in these languages:
    English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.

    Requirements:
    This Service pack RC includes previous updates delivered over Windows Update as well as continuing incremental updates to the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms based on customer and partner feedback, and is easy for organizations to deploy a single set of updates that help in avoiding vulnerabilities.It also helps us in downloading and deploying cumulative updates, with virtualization creativities added to it.
    It requires the following things to be installed:

  • 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

  • 1 GB of RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

  • 16 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)

  • DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

  • DVD-compatible drive

  • Install Windows 7 from USB

    So you finally bought your retail box. But what if you want to install Windows 7 on a netbook or other computer without an optical drive?
    Fortunately, you’re not out of luck, because Windows 7 can be installed from a USB storage key. Not only does installing from a USB key remove the need for a DVD drive, the install time is also greatly reduced

    Here is what you will need to do:
    Note: This guide will only work within Windows Vista or 7.
    1. Format Your USB Key 
    Plug in your USB key and back up any existing data stored on it. You’ll need to format the key before you can make it a bootable device.
    Time = 1 hour
    What you need:
    • 4GB USB key
    • WinRAR Free Evaluation Copy, www.rarlab.com
    • Windows 7

    Open up a Command Prompt as an Administrator. You can do this by finding the cmd.exe in yoru Windows/System32 folder, right-clicking the executable, and selecting “Run as Administrator”. Alternatively, type CMD in the Start Menu search field and activate the Command Prompt using Ctrl + Shift + Enter.

    You should be under c:\Windows\system32 (assuming your Windows partition is the C drive). Type “diskpart” in the command line to enter the Disk Partition command line tool, which lets you format and create partitions on active disks.
    Type “list disk” to reveal a list of all your active disks, each of which is associated with a number. Make a note of which one is your USB key, based on the capacity. In our screenshot below, our USB drive is Disk 6 (8GB).

    Next, type the following commands, one at a time:
    Select Disk # (Where # is the number of your USB disk. We typed “Select Disk 6”)
    Clean (removes any existing partitions from the USB disk, including any hidden sectors)
    Create Partition Primary (Creates a new primary partition with default parameters)
    Select Partition 1 (Focus on the newly created partition)
    Active (Sets the in-focus partition to active, informing the disk firmware that this is a valid system partition)
    Format FS=NTFS (Formats the partition with the NTFS file system. This may take several minutes to complete, depending on the size of your USB key.)
    Assign (Gives the USB drive a Windows volume and next available drive letter, which you should write down. In our case, drive “L” was assigned.)
    Exit (Quits the DiskPart tool)

    2. Turn the USB Key into a Bootable Device

    Insert the Windows 7 install DVD into your drive, and view the files that it contains. Copy all of the files here to a folder on your Desktop. We put the disc contents in a folder named “Windows 7”
    Go back to your command prompt, running it as an Administrator. Using the “CD” command, find your way to the folder where you extracted the ISO files. Your command line path should look something like “C:\Users\USERNAMEHERE\Desktop\Windows 7\”.
    Type the following commands:
    CD Boot (This gets you into the “boot” directory)
    Bootsect.exe /nt60 L: (where ‘L’ is the drive letter assigned to your USB key from the previous step)
    Bootsect infuses boot manager compatible code into your USB key to make it a bootable device.
    IMPORTANT: If you’re currently running 32-bit Windows Vista or 7, Bootsect will only work if you use the files from the 32-bit Windows 7 install disc. The Bootsect executable from the 64-bit version will not run in 32-bit Vista.

    3. Load the USB Key Up with the Install Files

    Copy all of the extracted ISO files into the USB drive. You don’t need to do this from the command prompt. Just drag and drop the files from the “Windows 7” folder into the drive using Windows Explorer.
    Your USB key is now all ready to go! Plug it into your target system and make sure you enter the BIOS (typically with F2 or F12) to temporarily change the boot order to allow booting from the USB key before your primary hard drive or optical drive. On the next restart, your system should automatically begin speedily loading setup files off of the USB key and entering Windows 7 installation.