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Category: Windows 7 Tips

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Prevent the System from Automatically Restarting after a Failure
    SUMMARY: If Windows 7 fails with a Blue Screen, prevent the system from automatically restarting so you can view debug information.
    If Windows 7 fails and displays a Blue Screen (possibly due to a driver error), this includes some debug information. More detail in a kernel memory dump is written to the system hard drive, and then the machine reboots.


    While servers for the most part need to automatically reboot upon system failure so they can more quickly restart and handle requests, desktop computer users may not need this functionality. By reading the on-screen debug data and using search engines or posting it to forums, the cause of the critical restart may be found and in some cases fixed.
    1. Click the “Start” button, selecting “Control Panel“.
    2. If you are using an expanded Control Panel, select “System“.
    Otherwise click “System and Security“, then “System“.
    3. In the left pane, select “Advanced system settings“.
    4. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, click “Yes“.
    5. The “System Properties” multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the “Advanced” tab.
    6. Underneath “Startup and Recovery“, click the “Settings” button.
    7. The “Startup and Recovery” dialog box appears. Underneath “System failure“, uncheck “Automatically restart“.

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

       

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Toggle Translucent Selection Rectangle on the Desktop
    SUMMARY: When creating selection rectangles on the Windows 7 Desktop, configure whether to show a dotted or translucent selection rectangle.

    Depending on your configuration, when you select multiple icons on the Windows 7 Desktop by creating a selection rectangle, such as to copy or move multiple icons to a folder, the rectangle appears translucent. Some people may find this easier to see than the old style selection rectangle that just appears as a dotted outline.
    Depending on your graphics drivers, system configuration, or personal preference, you may wish to toggle between viewing the translucent rectangle or the dotted rectangle. You can make the change by doing the following:

    1. Click the “Start” button, selecting “Control Panel“.
    2. If you are using an expanded Control Panel, select “System“.
    Otherwise click “System and Security“, then “System“.
    3. In the left pane, select “Advanced system settings“.
    4. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, click “Yes“.
    5. The “System Properties” multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the “Advanced” tab.
    6. Underneath “Performance“, click the “Settings” button.
    7. The “Performance Options” multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Make sure the “Visual Effects” tab is selected.
    8. Click the “Custom” radio button if it is not already selected, then check or uncheck “Show translucent selection rectangle” as desired.
    9. Click “OK” on the dialog boxes to close them.

     

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Snappier Taskbar Thumbnail Previews by Disabling Animations

    SUMMARY: Prevent Windows 7 from animating the taskbar thumbnail previews. This will also disable other Start Menu and Taskbar animations.

    Depending on your configuration, when you hover your mouse pointer over active icons in Windows 7’s Taskbar, thumbnail previews of folders / applications appear, and they do so with animation. For various reasons such as computer speed, graphics card speed, or personal preference, you might rather have these previews display quicker without the animation “eye candy”.

    1. Click the “Start” button, selecting “Control Panel“.
    2. If you are using an expanded Control Panel, select “System” from the pop-up menu.
    Otherwise when the “Control Panel” window appears, click “System and Security“, then “System“.
    3. In the left pane, select “Advanced system settings“.
    4. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, click “Yes“.
    5. The “System Properties” multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the “Advanced” tab.
    6. Underneath “Performance“, click the “Settings” button.
    7. The “Performance Options” multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Make sure the “Visual Effects” tab is selected.
    8. Click the “Custom” radio button if it is not already selected, then uncheck “Animations in the taskbar and Start Menu“.
    9. Click “OK” on the dialog boxes to close them.

     

  • 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.

     

  • Windows 7: Quick Network connections list

                         One of the annoyances in Windows 7 or Vista is that you can’t immediately open the Network Connections list to see the list of adapters like you could in Windows XP.

    In Windows XP, you could right-click any network connection and select “Open Network Connections”, but in Windows 7, the only option you have is to open the Network and Sharing Center via the same right-click menu.


    To immediately open the connection list, you can just type ncpa.cpl into the Start menu search box:


    And up pops the network connection list just like I’m used to:



    You can also create a shortcut somewhere to the full file path if you want even easier access.


    Just use C:\windows\system32\ncpa.cpl as the location of the shortcut.