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Category: Windows 7 Tips

  • Windows 7 Tips

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    Get Vista like Taskbar in Windows 7


    <!–[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–>If you are new to windows 7 and not able to go along with it smoothly then here is an option that you can follow to get the Taskbar icons as the same we had in Vista. In Vista whenever we minimized an application (folder, word etc.) it is accessed by a tab @ taskbar which describes about process and has an icon as well. But in Windows 7 this thing has been replaced by an Icon so you can‟t get any text over there. 
    To get back the similar feel in Windows 7 do the following:
    • Navigate to taskbar & Right Click it.
    • Open taskbar properties.
    • Go to option taskbar Buttons.
    • Here you have 3 options: hide labels, combine and never combine
    • Choose the third one.

    <!–[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–>It would restore the Taskbar buttons like they were used to be in Vista.

    This is how taskbar would look like now.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Font Issue : Make easier to Read Screen Text
    A lot of Windows 7 users are facing problems in the display provided in OS, it includes fuzzy Fonts in Windows 7 that makes the text unreadable most of the time.
    However it can be adjusted according to a user‟s need in Windows 7 using Control Panel.
    Steps to adjust Font/Graphics in Windows 7:
    1. Navigate to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Display
    2. Select the option on Left hand side pane Adjust Clear Type Text
    3. It will open ClearType text tuner which would help to improve the readability of text on LCD’s.
    4. After checking if your monitor is set to its native resolution it would provide 4 screens where you have to select a sample of text amongst the rest which you feels best.
    5. Check finish to complete the procedure to improve readability of fonts and to make their appearance sharper and clearer.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Find Your Computer Uptime
    A trick for all geeks who would like to know how long since they haven‘t shut down their computer.

    1. Go to Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc brings without UAC popup) 
    2. Go to Performance tab.
    3. In the system Information you can check out the uptime in the format Day : Hour : Minute : Second

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Find Out How Healthy Your Battery is on Your Laptop
    Windows 7 has a feature through which we can find out exactly how much battery you are actually getting from your Laptop battery, i.e. its efficiency, maximum charge potential.

    Its a well-known fact that as the age of lithium battery increases its charging capacity decreases and it won‟t charge to its full potential as when it‟s new. We can find out exactly how much the battery of laptop is giving now. We can use the powercfg -energy to find out how health your battery is.
    1. Open elevated command prompt by typing “cmd” in your start menu & opening it with administrator privileges.
    2. Type “powercfg –energy” into the command prompt & press Enter.
    3. The command enables tracing for 60 seconds & would collect all the data after observing the system behavior.
    4. After analysis it would generate a report.
    5. The energy report is generated in HTML format in the directory shown in the command prompt.
    Cmd Prompt Address\energy-report.html by default.
    6. In the HTML file, scroll to the end till you get information like this:
    This shows the battery ID, Manufacturer name, Chemistry, Design capacity and most importantly the last full charge.

    So as above screenshot Dell Studio 15 battery has design capacity of 5200 and now its giving max full charge of 3565 that counts its efficiency to around 70% it has degraded around 30% in 6 months

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Display a Message at Start Up

    At the time of Windows boot up a popup message can be added which contains any message you wish to display. In many organizations there a display of a message to display instructions or policies of Organization etc. in Windows, whenever you boot it.

    Here is how to do it:
     
    • Open Registry Editor (Go to Start Run type Regedit & press enter)
    • Navigate to : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
    • In the Right Side pane select & open LegalNoticeCaption and enter a value that you want to see in the Menu Bar.
    • Next to it open LegalNoticeText and insert the message you want to display each time Windows boots.
    • Close Registry & Restart for changes to take effect.
    Setting up Menu bar text using LegalNoticeCaption key:
    Setting up Message to Display after computer Boots up using LegalNoticeText key:

    This trick works with Windows 7 and earlier Versions of Windows as well.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Customize Windows 7 Power Button Action Button
    The “Shut Down” button in Windows 7 can be customized with another action, if you use shut down action very rarely, but you more often restart it or put it on hibernate.
     
    To change the action of shutdown button, Right click the Start Button, go to Properties and choose the “Power Boot Action” to do whatever you want, from the given options. It will give you a drop down list amongst following option to select from.
    • Switch user
    • Log off
    • Lock
    • Restart
    • Sleep
    • Hibernate
    • Shutdown

    Now the button at Start Menu would change and perform the action as selected.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Stop Synchronizing the Time

    SUMMARY: For privacy reasons, prevent Windows 7 from synchronizing the system time with an Internet time server.
    By default if you are not the member of a domain, Windows 7 periodically synchronizes your computer time with an Internet time server, time.windows.com. This way if your system clock loses a few seconds (or worse), Windows can periodically adjust it as necessary, helping prevent file synchronization problems with backups and other issues.
    While many people appreciate the automatic synchronizations, others may have privacy issues with their computer periodically communicating with a public time server. Thus this synchronization can be disabled. Note that if you do so, you may find it important to occasionally manually adjust the system time.
    1. Click on the taskbar clock and click “Change date and time settings” when the popup appears.
    2. The “Date and Time” multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the “Internet Time” tab.
    3. Click the “Change settings” button.
    4. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, click “Yes“.
    5. The “Internet Time Settings” dialog box appears. Uncheck “Synchronize with an Internet time server“.



    6. Click “OK” on the dialog boxes to close them.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Enable the Onscreen Keyboard‘s Numeric Key Pad Display
    SUMMARY: To make numbers easier to enter with Windows 7‘s On-Screen Keyboard, display a virtual numeric keypad.
    By default, Windows 7‘s On-Screen Keyboard utility does not display a numeric keypad, using up fewer pixels on the screen. For those who need to enter numbers using this tool, however, it can be annoying to have to move so far to enter numbers such as “10”, “28”, and “30”, for example.


    The following quick tip enables a virtual numeric keypad which may make entering numbers easier for those who need to use this utility:
    1. On the “On-Screen Keyboard“, click the “Options” button on the right side (underneath the “PrtScn” button).
    2. The “Options” dialog box appears. Check “Turn on numeric key pad“.
    3. Click “OK” to close the dialog box.

    4. You may need to press the “NumLock” button to switch the virtual keypad from the cursor keys to numbers.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Toggle Start Menu and Explorer Popups
    SUMMARY: Choose whether pop-up description text should appear when hovering over files, folders, Desktop icons, and Start Menu options.
    When you hover your mouse pointer over file icons in Windows 7, a popup appears with information about the file. This may include (depending on the file type) its size, date, image dimensions, sound length, or other information. When you hover your mouse pointer over a folder, pop-up information may contain the folder creation date, size, and files contained underneath. Information appears when you hover over Desktop icons. And when you hover over items in the Start Menu, description pop-up text also appears here.


    While many appreciate this descriptor text, some may find it annoying, especially the pop-ups that appear while navigating the Start Menu. If desired, you can disable all of the pop-ups.
    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. Scroll down and check or uncheck “Show pop-up description for folders and desktop items” as desired.

    4. Click “OK” to close the dialog box.

      

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Enable / Disable Toggle Navigating Menus in Start Menu via Mouse Hover
    SUMMARY: Toggle whether or not just hovering the mouse pointer over a menu in Windows 7’s Start Menu opens its submenu.
    By default in Windows 7, when you hover your mouse pointer over the “All Programs” menu or other defined menus in the Start Menu, after a brief moment Windows automatically opens the sub menu. This assumes that whenever you hover your mouse pointer over a menu, you mean to expand it.


    If you do not like this behavior it can be disabled.
    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 the “Open submenus when I pause on them with the mouse pointer” box.

    5. Click “OK” on the dialog boxes to close them