Set Up Custom Shortcut Keys in MS Word & Make a Cheat Sheet

Evolution gave us two hands, but hopefully it will continue on and give us a few more. Just two hands are hardly fitting for the digital age.

If we could total up the seconds lost in flitting between the keyboard and the mouse, I am sure it will add up to a nice round figure. That’s why keyboard shortcuts are important to learn and master. It’s not a difficult skill, we have to just key in patience and practice.

The Office Ribbon still has its naysayers but I feel that when it comes to keyboard shortcuts, it gives us the easiest way to learn them. Press the Alt key and you have them displayed on the Ribbon. It’s just a matter of following the letters. These keyboard shortcuts make Microsoft Office operations smooth, but it’s just the first level. There are a few dozen more below the surface.

Keyboard shortcuts are not only about productivity and speed but they also help to minimize occupational ailments like Tendonitis from constant computer use. So, if I am succeeding in making you fall in love with the gal called QWERTY, then you should know that you can create your own keyboard shortcuts and change the default ones in MS Word too.

By the way, Microsoft Office Online has a short but great training course on Word shortcut keys.

3 Steps To Configuring Your Own Word Shortcut Keys

The thing about customizing keyboard shortcuts is that there are some key combinations that you instinctively remember. Also there are some commands or combination of commands for which there are no default shortcut keys. For example, you can set up custom shortcut keys for macros, specific fonts, styles, and special symbols that you frequently use.

So here’s how we go about bringing them all within the touch of a key.

* To start, follow this sequence of clicks: Office Button – Word Options – Customize.

* Close to the bottom, click on the Customize button for Keyboard shortcuts to bring up the Customize Keyboard dialog box.

* In the Customize Keyboard dialog box, commands are listed for specific categories. Check the Description for what each key does. Each command has its corresponding shortcut listed in the Current Keys field. You can easily assign a different set of keys by pressing CTRL (with or without SHIFT/ALT) and a letter. MS Word lets you know if your shortcut combo is assigned to any other command or not. Choose the template to assign the key to – Normal (for all documents or the presently open document). Click on Assign and your new shortcut key is set.

Setting Up A Brand New Word Shortcut Key

There are also some commands for which no Word shortcut keys are assigned by default. Take this for instance – Sending an open Word document via email.

Let’s see how to configure a keyboard shortcut for that –

In the Customize Keyboard dialog box, check out All Commands listed under Categories. In the listings on the right, scroll down to a command called FileSendMail.

Select that and press the new shortcut keys you want to have for this task in the Press new shortcut key field. Save the changes across all documents (the Normal template) or just the open one. Click on Assign to complete the process.

Custom Word shortcut keys can also be set up for Macros, Styles, Fonts, Autotext, and Common Symbols.

Explore the commands given for them under categories. There are probably some which you use very frequently. For example, a repeated activity like inserting your name or address as an autotext could benefit from a shortcut key.

Remembering Them All

You have just set up a dozen fresh shortcut keys and are on the threshold of boosted productivity. It will take a bit of time before you are silky smooth with them. With a single step, we can print out the list and keep it close. Here’s how to have a cheat sheet for our personalized shortcut keys.

Click on CTRL+P for the Print dialog box. You can also go from the menu, but we are talking about shortcuts aren’t we?

From the dropdown for Print What, select Key assignments. Click on OK to print out your keyboard shortcuts list.

Note: Only those key assignments that have been reassigned from their defaults will be printed.

How to Dual Boot Mac OS X and Windows 7 – A Complete Walkthrough

This is a complete walkthrough in general on how you can install Mac OS X (Leopard) onto your desktop or laptop along with Windows 7. I know we are a Windows 7 topic specific blog, but lately there are increasing interests in people who want to have their PC to run both Windows 7 and Mac OS X simultaneously. So let me share some of my 2-year of experience of building and installing mackintosh (warning: if you are not computer savvy user you may not want to try this

Here are some of the prerequisite:

You need at least a CPU that supports “SSE 2” instruction set or above instruction set, if not you probably haven’t updated your PC in the past 5-6 years. How to find out if your CPU (doesn’t matter if you are using an Intel or AMD) suppose SSE 2 instruction set?

 

2.Have a copy of Windows 7 Install Disk (you will need this to fix the boot issue after you’ve finished installing hackintosh)

Get as many different Mac OSx86 distribution as possible, you will find them useful during the process of installing. Here is a list of the distributions. Be careful some of the distribution only support Intel-based PC. If you have AMD please look for the release notes of each distribution. You know where to download them (prefer get the latest edition for each)

iATKOS
iDeneb
Kalyway
SnowOSX Universal (this is for Snow Leopard)

Better have a different hard drive to install on if not, make sure you have at least 20+ GB free space

2GB of RAM or more

A DVD Drive (of course)

Note: before we start, it is important to backup all your data if necessary, any data lost is your own responsibility.

Let’s Get Started

Lets assume you already have Windows 7 installed. The first thing you probably want to do is to create a new partition on your hard drive. If you don’t know how to do that, check this tutorials first.

When you create a new partition please give it at least 20 GB or more, if you want to use the mackintosh for any real usage you probably want to add more disk spaces in there. (Xcode in Mac along will take almost 8 GB + spaces, so you want to give it as much spaces as you can)

Once you have created a partition it’s time to try out on installing Mac OS X on your machine.

Yes, you literary need to try out on the different distributions, if you really want to proceed and have a working mackintosh you better start looking at the hardware supportability here. Since every one of you will have a different hardware configuration, it is hard to be general in this case. The bottom line is, you want to check your motherboard (for desktop) or laptop version first. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/ is an awesome place to go if you have some specific questions regarding your hardware compatibility and installing issue.

Once you have done enough research you will feel confident of what you are doing.

Go to BIOS make sure you are now booting from the DVD first. Insert the Mac OS X distribution you’ve obtained, personally I like to use iATKOS, since that’s the one that I got my Acer Aspire 5580 laptop to work. Yours might be different, again its all depend on the hardware.

 

During the initial Disk load press F8 for optional parameter. Some of the parameter you can use are –v, –F, –X, cpus=1 etc

Once you have successfully loaded into OSX go to Disk Utility you want to reformat the partition you’ve just created into Mac OS Extended (Journal) (for detail see here)

Now quit the Disk Utility and proceed the install

Be sure to click Customize when you see the Screen Above

Now its the matter of re-trying over and over again. Remember what your configuration is and apply the proper driver (kext file)

We will skip the long and boring re-trying part. Let’s assuming you have it finally working installed and get properly login into Mac OS X. You will soon find out you are not able to boot back into Windows 7 again. That’s because the boot loader you’ve installed overwrite the Windows 7 Boot Manager.

You have two option to fix can’t boot into Windows 7 issue:

The easies way is to insert your Windows 7 disk, and repair your Windows 7. If the wizard found the problem great. If not proceed to step 2

 

Now you probably want to manually recover the Windows Boot Loader
When you get back into Windows 7, I recommend to use this method called “tboot” what it does is basically create a new entry of boot option in your Windows Boot Manager, that will then re-direct you to Darwin or Chameleon boot loader in Mackintosh.

That’s pretty much it, if you have any specific questions please feel free to leave a comment here, and I will try my best to help you out.

How do I temporarily disable the startup scan in eset antivirus/smart security

 
 

By default, your ESET security product will scan programs and memory at startup. If your system startup scan is taking an unusually long time to complete, you may have conflicting programs set to run at start up. You cannot cancel the startup scan once it has started, but you can temporarily disable the scan from running on system startup by following the directions below:

1- Open the main program window by clicking the icon in the Windows notification area or by clicking Start → All Programs → ESET → ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

2- Toggle to Advanced mode by clicking Change… in the lower left corner and then clicking Yes if you are prompted to confirm or by pressing CTRL + M on your keyboard.

3- In the left column, click Tools → Scheduler. The Scheduler/Planner window will be displayed.

4- Deselect Automatic startup file check | System Startup file check. | User logon. By default, this is the fourth option down.

5- Restart your computer. Your startup scan is now disabled.

Important! Disabling the ESET startup scan exposes your computer to risk and is only a temporary fix for a third-party application conflict. If possible, we recommend checking for other applications which are scheduled to run at startup and either deselecting their startup features or uninstalling the conflicting software from your computer. ESET is unable to provide support for other third-party applications.

Convert any Folder into almost anything

This is done by adding their respective registry keys to the folder’s name. After this when you’ll double click on the folder, either Control Panel, Recycle Bin, My Computer or Internet Explorer will open according to your choice. Actually that folder is then treated by Windows as a link to any of these four. The folder will remain intact with all its data and no one can access that folder via Windows. It can only be accessed via Command Prompt or some third party app.

To Convert Folder Into Contol Panel, Rename With Adding
    .{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

    To Convert Folder Into Recycle Bin, Rename With Adding
    .{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

To Convert Folder Into My Computer, Rename With Adding
.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

To Convert Folder Into Internet Explorer, Rename With Adding
.{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}

Eg:- If you have a folder ABC, to convert it into Control Panel, rename the folder as
ABC.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} After this, the key should disappear and act as an attribute. And if it doesn’t, then also no problem, as the folder will start working the way you want it to.

To re-enable your folder to be accessible via Windows, go to command prompt and rename the folder there. Eg:- If the folder is in C:TempABC, then get to C:Temp in the command prompt and type:
ren ABC.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} ABC

(Command Prompt supports CLIPBOARD. Copy-Paste will work there.)
Your folder will be back to normal state.
This method can be used to protect any data, but it will not provide reliable security to the data.
You can also search the registry for more relevant keys like these.

Breaking In Windows XP Password

   
 

Method 1:

If you have an administrator account (Not Guest)

then the XP users’ passwords can be reset using command prompt.

Go to the task-bar and click on the Start button, then click on run and in the place given on dialog box type “command”, press enter.

Now In the Command prompt type “net user”
the screen will display the list of users available on machine

suppose there are three administrator users with the name of admin1, admin2 and admin3

then the password of any user can be changed by logging into the account of any one administrator

for example if we want to change the password of admin1

then we can change it from the following command

net user admin1 password

similarly for other desired users

The general syntax is for changing password is

net user

Limitations: The above method will only work if you are logged in as the administrator user.

Method 2:

Windows Recovery option,

Boot from the Windows XP CD and press enter when you are prompted to Install Windows copy, on the next screen there is a repair existing Windows version. This method is also known as windows recovery method,

The repair option will take as much time as the installation would have taken because the Windows file-system is replaced including the SAM file where the password is stored.

C:WindowsSystem32configsam

whereas the users’ setting remain untouched.

Thus the users’ password is reset to NULL value.

#In repair mode you have another hole to modify the password.It is easier.The steps are as following.

Boot from xp bootable.After license agreement is done(pressing f8) select the target window for repair.

After file copy completed machine will restart.And repair process will start.You will see ‘installing devices’ 39 minutes left etc. at bottom left of your screen.

Now press Shift+f10.A console(command window) will open.

type nusrmgr.cpl and hit enter.This will let you to enter in the user account setting.Now change the password.You will not be asked for old password. Just type the new password there.

Continue the repair process.It is strongly recommended that you continue the repair until it is completed.

You are done, the password is replaced.The password strength does not matter in this case.

Method 3:

Boot your computer from a live Linux CD or DVD which has an NTFS/HPFS file-system support.

Then Mount the drive which has Windows copy installed on it. Copy the sam file on the location

C:WindowsSystem32configsam

Which will be mentioned as /media/disk-1/Windows/System32/config/sam

It is a common misconception that sam file can be viewed through normal text editor, sam file isnt a normal text file.

Gnome, KDE or vim text Editors won’t display the content of this file

Open the file using Emacs Editor (available in nearly all the distributions of Live Linux). It will be hard to find the the password hashes, so go for the user-names which are not encrypted, just after the user-names passwords’ hashes can be found out, copy the code between “%” sign and on the the Google search for the rainbow tables, They will provide the decrypted value which have already been brute-forced earlier. This is isn’t a sure shot method, as the rainbow project is still under development. The password can be set to NULL by deleting the content, but this might result in the corruption of the sam file, and recovery is the only option left after it.

Limitations: This Method can corrupt your SAM file, which may lead to a repair of Windows XP, and you can risk your personal data with that.

Method 4:

OPHcrack method.

This is a sure shot password recovery method based upon bruteforcing.

This Live CD is based upon the slax LiveCD v.5.1.7. It has been customized to include ophcrack 2.3.3 and the SSTIC04-10k tables set. It is able to crack 99.9%% of alphanumeric passwords. Since the tables have to be loaded into memory, cracking time varies with the amount of available RAM. The minimum amount of RAM required is 256MB (because the LiveCD uses a lot of it). The recommended amount is 512MB. Ophcrack will auto-detect the amout of free memory and adapts its behaviour to be able to preload all the tables it can.

A shell script launched at the beginning of the X session(Session for managing your desktop) does the job of finding the Windows partition and starting appropriate programs to extract and crack password hashes. It will look for all partitions that contains hashes. If more than one are found, you will have to choose between them.

If your partition is not detected, make sure your the partition containing the hashes you want to crack is mounted and the use ophcrack ‘Load from encrypted SAM’ function to recover your Windows hashes. Then click ‘Launch’ and the cracking process will start.

70 Fantastic Windows 7 Tips & Tricks For Better Functionality

   
 

Windows 7 is much better than the latest version of Windows Vista and it comes with a lot of new features. Unfortunately, some of them aren’t so easy to figure out, so I created a list of the most important tips and tricks and a step-by-step guide that will help you apply all of these great tips and tricks.

1. PC Safeguard

I rarely let anyone use my PC because I’m afraid he will mess it up, but it seems Microsoft has been thinking at me and came with a solution. The PC Safeguard doesn’t let anyone mess your PC settings, because after the user logs off, the configurations are reset back to normal. Of course it will not restore the configurations changed by you, but only the ones done by other users you define.

To use PC Safeguard, go to Control Panel -> User Accounts and create a new account, then select “Set Up Pc Safeguard” and switch it on. Then you can stay relaxed when others use your computer, because you won’t find anything changed, including configurations, downloaded software, installed programs.

2. Screen Calibration

Fortunately, Windows 7 comes with a display calibration wizard that lets you set up the screen brightness properly, so you won’t have any problems viewing photos or text. The problem was that on one PC a photo could look sharp and bright and on another it looks awful. Now the problem can be fixed by pressing the Windows logo key and then typing “DCCW”.

3. AppLocker

If you are usually sharing your computer with someone else, then you might want to restrict their access to your applications, files or documents. Using the AppLocker tool, you have a few options to do this by blocking other users to access Executables, Windows Installers, Scripts, a specific publisher or path.

You can simply do this by pressing the Windows key then typing Gpedit.msc. Then go to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Application Control Policies -> AppLocker. Right click on one of the options (Executables, Installers, or Script) and create a new rule. That should save you from a lot of headaches.

4. Burn Images

We all had trouble with image burning in Windows, because it couldn’t do it itself, a standalone software being needed. With Windows 7 this will not be a problem anymore. All you have to do is double-click the ISO image and burn it on the CD or DVD that’s inserted in the drive.

5. Display Empty Removable Drives

Windows 7 will not show empty drives by default, so if you connect an empty drive to your PC, don’t worry, just go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View and uncheck “Hide empty drives in the computer folder”. This doesn’t seem like a good idea and it should not be default setting, because it will be hard for inexperienced users to figure it out. I bet a lot of users will return their newly bought drive thinking it’s broken.

6. Dock The Current Windows To The Left Side Of The Screen

This new feature seems useful because sometimes it’s disturbing that windows seems to float like crazy on the screen and it’s hard to attach them to one side of it. Now this can easily be done using a keyboard shortcut. Press the Windows key + Left key (arrow) to dock it to the left side of the screen.

6.1 Dock The Current Windows To The Right Side Of The Screen

Press the Windows key + Right key to dock it to the right side of the screen.

7. Display Or Hide The Explorer Preview Panel

Press ALT + P to hide it then once again to display it.

8. Display Gadgets On Top Of Other Windows

Press ALT + G

9. Background Photo Slideshow

If you are like me, lazy and bored, then you will want to change the background from time to time, wasting a lot of time. Now you don’t have to do this anymore, because you can set up a slideshow.

Right click on the desktop then go to Personalize -> Desktop Background and hold the CTRL key while choosing the images. Then you can choose the time intervals between images and opt to display them randomly or in a row.

10. Make The Taskbar Smaller

If you feel like the taskbar is using too much of your screen space, you can choose to make the icons smaller. To do this, right-click on the Start button, then go to Properties -> Taskbar and set it to “Use small icons”

11. Combine Taskbar Icons

When you have more windows or applications opened, the taskbar’s space might not be enough for them all, so you need to combine them, just like you would in Windows XP or Vista. To do this, right-click the Start button, then go to Properties -> Taskbar and check “Combine when taskbar is full”.

12. Multi-threaded File Copy

If you are a more advanced user, you’ve heard already about Robocopy. Now it’s included in Windows 7 and lets you perform multi-threaded copies from the command line. You can choose the number of threads like this “/MT[:n], which can be from 1 to 128.

13. Maximize Or Restore The Foreground Window

Press Windows Key + Up Key.

14. Minimize The Active Window

Press Windows Key + Down Key

15. Activate The Quick Launch Toolbar

The Quick Launch Toolbar in Windows XP and in Vista seems a very good idea that you might miss when using Windows 7. Fortunately though, you can get it back in a quick few steps.

Right click the taskbar, go to Toolbar -> New Toolbar and type “%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch” into the folder box, then click Select Folder.

To make it look like it would in Windows Vista, right click the taskbar, uncheck “Lock the Taskbar”, then right click the divider and uncheck “Show Title” and “Show Text”. Then right click the taskbar and check “Show Small Icons” and you should be done.

16. Preview Photos In Windows Explorer

While in Windows Explorer, Press ALT + P and a preview should appear on the right.

17. Desktop Magnifier

Press the Windows Key and the Plus Key to zoom in or Windows Key and the Minus Key to zoom out. You can zoom anywhere on the desktop and you can even configure your magnifier. You can choose to invert colors, follow the mouse pointer, follow the keyboard focus, or the text insertion point.

18. Minimize Everything Except The Current Window

Press the Windows Key + Home Key.

19. TroubleShoot Power Management

Windows 7 can tell you how much power your system uses or provide detailed information about the power usage and issues caused by each application and device. This way you can optimize the way your battery is used, making It last longer.

Press the Windows Key and type “POWERCFG –ENERGY –OUTPUT “, and it will create a file called energy-report.html in the folder specified by you, after observing your PC for 60 seconds.

20. Web Searches From Your Desktop

Windows 7 lets you search for online resources, by adding a connector that be downloaded for free.

For instance, go to http://www.istartedsomething.com/flickrsearch/ and download the Flickr connector. After that, you should see the Flickr Search in your searches folder and you will be able to do it directly from your desktop, without needing to visit their website.

21. Add Videos To Your Start Menu

If you were looking for a faster way to access your videos, then Windows 7 has the right answer for you.

Right click the Start button, then go to Properties -> Start Menu -> Customize and set the Videos to “Display as a link” and you’re done, you will now find them in the Start Menu.

22. Shift The Window From One Monitor To Another

If you are using two or more monitors, then you might want to move the Windows from one to another. There is a very simple way to do it.

All you have to do is press the Windows Key + Shift Key + Left or Right Key, depending on what monitor you want to move it to.

23. Custom Power Button

There is an option to replace the “Shut Down” button with another action, if you rarely shut down the computer, but you more often restart it or put it on sleep.

Right click the Start Button, go to Properties and choose the ‘Power Boot Action” to do whatever you want, from the given options.

24. Easily Add A New Font

Adding a new font it’s now easier than ever. Just download the font you want, double click it and you should see the install button.

25. Stretch The Window Vertically

You can stretch the active window vertically to the maximum display height by pressing the Windows + Shift + Up (arrow) keys. Press Windows + Down Keys if you want to restore it.

26. Open Windows Explorer

Press the Windows logo key + E to open a new instance of Windows Explorer.

27. Create A New Instance Of The First Icon In The Taskbar

Press Windows + 1 Keys to open a new instance of the first icon in the taskbar. This could prove really useful in some circumstances.

28. Windows Action Center

Windows Action Center offers you important information about your PC, like the Antivirus Status, updates, troubleshooting and provides a backup scheduling feature.

To access it, go to Control Panel -> System And Security -> Action Center.

29. Windows Troubleshooting Platform

This platform can help you solve a lot of issues you may encounter, like the internet connection, hardware devices, poor system performance and more. You can choose what to troubleshoot and it will come with some possible explanations for the problem that might really help you.

There are a lot of options, guidance and information available there, so give it a try by typing “troubleshoot” or “fix” after pressing the Windows Key.

30. Turn Off System Notifications

System notifications are usually disturbing and aren’t always useful, so you might want to turn some of them off and.

This can be done in Windows 7 by double clicking the Notification Area Icons in Control panel. There you can change notifications and icons for the Action Center, Network, Volume, Windows Explorer, Media Center Tray Applet, Windows Update Automatic Updates.

31. Turn Off Security Messages

To turn off security messages you have to go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Action Center -> Change Action Center Settings and you can turn off the following notifications: Windows Update, Internet Security Settings, Network Firewall, Spyware and related protection, User Account Control, Virus Protection, Windows Backup, Windows Troubleshooting, Check for updates.

32. Cycle Through The Open Programs Via The Taskbar’s Peek Menu

This works just like Alt + Tab, but opens the menu just above the sidebar, doesn’t seem very useful. Give it a try by pressing The Windows Key + T.

33. Run A Program As An Administrator

You can easily run a program as an administrator by pressing Ctrl + Shift while opening it.

34. Same Program Windows Switching

If you have more instances of a program running, simply hold Ctrl while clicking on its icon and it will cycle through all the instances.

35. Auto Arrange Desktop Icons

You can now forget about the Right Click -> Auto arrange. All you have to do is hold F5 pressed for a bit and the icons will auto arrange.

36. Encrypt Removable USB Drives

Encrypting an USB drive has never been easier. Now you can right click on the removable drive and then on the “Turn on Bitlocker”.

37. Turn Off Smart Window Arrangement

If you don’t like Windows 7’s new features that arrange your windows intelligently, there’s an easy way to turn it off.

Press the Windows Logo Key, type “regedit”, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and set WindowArrangementActive to 0. After you reboot your system the smart arrangements will be turned off.

38. Create A System Repair Disc

Windows 7 features a tool that lets you create a bootable System Repair Disc that includes some system tools and the command prompt. To create it, press the Windows Key and type “system repair disc”.

39. Hard-Link Migration Store

The Hard-Link Migration store is only available for new computers and can migrate files, settings, and user accounts. The new Hard-Link Migration Store uses more less disk space and takes less time.

40. Turn Off ‘Send Feedback’

If for some reason, you’re still using the Beta version of Windows 7 and if you feel disturbed by “Send Feedback button”, there is a way to turn it off. Press the Windows Key and type ‘regedit’, then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and set FeedbackToolEnabled to 0. After you restart the computer, it shouldn’t be there anymore. Also, if you want to turn it on again,
set the FeedbackToolEnabled to 3.

41. Improved Calculator

Windows 7 features an improved calculator that can do unit conversion, date calculation, gas mileage, lease, and mortgage. Also you can choose between Standard, Scientific, Programmer, and Statistic calculator.

42. Open A Folder In A New Process

Windows 7 opens all folders in the same process in order to save resources, but this means if one folder crashes, they all crash. So if you feel like that’s a risk you don’t have to take, then you have to open them all in their own processes.

To do this, hold down Shift button, right-click the drive and “Open in New Process”. Now you will be safe.

43. Problem Step Recorder

The Problem Step Recorder is a great tool that can be used in many circumstances. You can turn it on by pressing the Windows Key, then typing “PSR.exe” and click Record. Now it will record all your moves and save them as a HTML document that you can view or write descriptions to it. This can help you with troubleshooting or when writing a guidance or tutorial.

44. Free Codecs Pack

Unfortunately, Windows Media Player still isn’t able to play many audio and video files, so you will still need some codecs. But with the free codecs pack you can download here you shouldn’t have any problems.

45. Start Windows Explorer From My Computer

Windows Explorer opens in the Libraries directory by default. Most of us are used to see the My Computer page instead.

To change it to My Computer, press the Windows Key, then type “explorer”, select Properties and in the Shortcut tab type “%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}”. Now you have to right-click the Explorer icon in the Taskbar and hit “Unpin this program from the taskbar” and then drag it back from the Start Menu.

46. Clear The Desktop

If there are too many windows on the desktop, you can clear it by shaking a window from left to right and all others will minimize. To restore the other windows you have to shake the active one again.

47. Use Gadgets With UAC Turned Off

Maybe you noticed that once you turn off UAC you can’t use the gadgets anymore, as a security measure. But if you want to risk using them, there a simple way to do it, even with UAC turned off.

Press the Windows Key, type ‘regedit’, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Sidebar\Settings and create a DWORD value named AllowElevatedProcess and set its value to 1. Now you should be able to use your gadgets. If not, then reboot your PC and you should be done.

48. Fix The Media Player & Media Center MP3 Bug

If you have the final version of Windows 7, then go ahead and skip this one, since it applies only to Beta and RC versions.

Both Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center come with a bug that can damage your MP3s by filling missing metadata automatically on imported MP3 files. This can cut a few seconds from the beginning of the tracks and can prove really disturbing. This problem was fixed by Microsoft using the fix that you can download here.

49. Search Everything In Your Computer

Windows 7 offers the possibility to search all file types, including unknown ones and this could help you in some cases.

Though it is not recommended, because it’s much slower than normal search, you can give it a try by doing the following: Launch Windows Explorer, go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View and check “Try to search the content of unknown file types”. If you don’t need it anymore, don’t forget to clear it for an increase in speed.

50. Mouse Gestures

Windows 7 has not only brought gestures for those who use touchscreen devices, but for mouse users too. So, instead of right-clicking a Taskbar icon to access the jump list, you can hold left-click and drag upwards to smoothly call it up. In addition, clicking and dragging down the address bar in Internet Explorer will open the browsing history. There might be more gestures yet not discovered.

51. Configure Your Music Favorites

The Windows Media Center creates a list of favorite songs based on how often you play them, your ratings and date you’ve added them. If you aren’t comfortable with the way they thought it out, change the way it sorts your favorites by going to Tasks -> Settings -> Music -> Favorite Music.

52. Turn Off Recent Search Queries Display

Windows 7 holds and displays the recent search queries by default. This can often prove to be irritating. No need to stress though because it can be disabled.

Press the Windows Key, type “gpedit.msc”, then go to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer and double click on “Turn off display of recent search entries”.

53. Advanced Disk Defragmentation

Fortunately, Windows 7 offers much better defragmentation than Vista and also lets you configure it a bit from the command line.

To do it, press the Windows Key and then type “CMD”.

You can defragment your hard disk from the command line by typing “defrag” and you have the following options: “/r” will defrag multiple drives simultaneously, “-a” performs a defrag analysis, “-v” prints the report, “-r” treats files with at least 64 Mb of fragments like are not fragmented, “-w” will defrag everything. An example is “defrag C: -v -w” to defrag the whole drive C.

54. How To Make Internet Explorer 8 Load Faster

If you want Internet Explorer 8 to load faster, you need to disable the add-ons that slow it down, so go to Tools -> Manage Add-ons and check the load time for each one. You can choose for yourself the ones you can live without and ones that would increase the load speed.

55. Media Center Automatic Download

Windows Media Center 12 allows you to schedule data downloads, so it can be done without disturbing you. To do it, go to Tasks -> Settings -> General -> Automatic Download Options and you can configure it to start and stop the download whenever you want.

56. Remove The Sidebar

Windows 7 doesn’t seem to feature the sidebar anymore, but it still exists and runs in the background, being launched automatically at startup. So if you want to get rid of it, there are two ways.

The easier one is to press the Windows Key, (or click Start), in the search box, type MSCONFIG.EXE, click the Startup tab and clear the Sidebar box. The hard way is to press the Windows key, type “regedit”, find and delete the registry key at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. This can save you some RAM consumed with no use.

57. Volume Tweaking

Don’t you like that Windows 7 automatically reduces the volume when it detects PC calls? You can turn off this feature by right-clicking the speaker icon in the taskbar, go to Sounds -> Communications and get rid of it.

58. Run A Program As Another User

Windows 7 comes with the possibility to run a program both as an administrator or another user, by right clicking on the executable or shortcut while holding down the Shift key. Then you have to select “Run as another user”.

59. How To Use Virtual Hard Disk Files

You can now create and manage virtual hard disks files in Windows 7 as if they were real disks. This can allow you to use a live Windows installation on the virtual disk without the need to boot the virtual Computer. To create a virtual disk you have to press the Windows Key, right-click on Computer, then go to Manage -> Disk Management -> Action -> Create VHD. There you can specify the location and size of your virtual hard disk file.

To attach the virtual disk file, press the Windows Key, right-click Computer, then go to Manage -> Disk Management -> Action -> Attach VHD and you have to specify the location and if it’s read only or not.

To initialize a virtual hard disk, press the Windows Key, right-click on Computer, go to Manage -> Disk Management -> Action -> Attach VHD, specify the location, click Ok, then right click on the virtual disk and click on Initialize Disk. Select the partition style you want to use and then right-click on the unallocated space and click “New Simple Volume” and follow the instructions wizard. Now, a new hard drive appears in Windows Explorer and you can use it as a real partition.

60. Remove The Windows Live Messenger Tab In The Taskbar

To get rid of the Windows Live Messenger Tab and put it back in the system tray, where it belongs, go to C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger, right-click msnmsdgr.exe and set its compatibility mode to Windows Vista.

61. Lock The Screen

There is no Lock Screen button in the Start Menu anymore, so you have to press the Windows Key + L to lock it, now. It seems easier, in case you don’t forget the shortkey.

62. Create A Screen Lock Shortcut

In case you don’t like shortkeys or you keep forgetting them, there’s another option for screen lock.

Simply create a new shortcut to C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation and place it wherever you want.

63. Enable Run Command In Start Menu

If you miss the old Run Command button in XP, then there’s an option to get it back in Windows 7.

Right-click an open area in Start Menu, go to Properties -> Start Menu -> Customize and check “Run Command”. Now you should be done.

64. Improve Desktop Window Manager For Nvidia Graphics

Sometimes the animations for Desktop Window Manager don’t look very well and aren’t smooth enough and this is cause because Desktop Window Manager renders effects with no transparency and blurring, but you can turn off animations for more pleasant graphics.

Press the Windows Key, right-click on Computer, go to Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Performance -> Settings and clear “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing”. Click OK to finnish.

65. Change Default Save Location For Files

Windows 7 is a bit different from Vista, because it saves Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music under the Public folder inside C:\Users. You might not want to save your documents, pictures, videos or music to this location, but create your own locations and you can do it quite easy.

Press the Windows Key, click your username and double-click on the folder you wish to change. Then you will see Includes: 2 library locations. Click on that text, right-click on the folder you wish to set like default and click “Set as default file location”, then click Ok.

66. Make 64bit Windows Media Player Default (only for X64 users)

Windows comes with the 32bit version of Media Player by default. If you are a x64 user, you can keep the system cleaner by only installing one set of codecs.

To do this, press the Windows Key, type “command”, right-click on Command Prompt and hit “Run as administrator”, then type “unregmp2.exe /SwapTo:64?”. After that, press the Windows Key, type “regedit”, go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\wmplayer.exe\, double click on value and change “%ProgramFiles(x86)” to “%ProgramFiles%”. Now you should be using the 64bit Windows Media Player.

67. Open Multiple Instances Of Windows Explorer Via The Taskbar

If you want to run more instances of the Windows Explorer just by hitting the startbar, you can do it by following these steps:

Unpin Windows Explorer from the Taskbar, then press the Windows Key, go to Accessories, right-click Windows Explorer, go to Properties and change the shortcut path to %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} ( if you want it to default to My Computer ) or %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5} ( if you want it to default to Libraries ). Now repin Windows Explorer to your Taskbar and you’re done.

All that is required for opening more instances of it is just a click of the middle mouse button. If you aren’t pleased with what you’ve done, change the shortcut path back to %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe.

68. Make The System Tray Clock Show The AM / PM Symbols

By default Windows 7 does show the time in 24 hour format, so if you want to get the AM / PM symbols, press the Windows Key, type “intl.cpl” to open Regional and Language Options, go to Additional Settings -> Time where Long Time is set to HH:mm and change it to HH:mm tt, for example, where tt is the AM or PM symbol ( 21:12 PM ). To change it to the 12 hour format, you need to type it like this hh::mm tt ( 9:12 PM ).

69. Internet Explorer 8 Compatibility Mode

If your websites don’t render correctly, you might need to enable Internet Explorer 8 display them in compatibility view. This issue is because of the updated rendering engine, which causes a lot of trouble. To do it, open Internet Explorer, go to Tools -> Compatibility View Settings and check “Display all websites in compatibility view”, then click Ok.

That’s it! There you go – 70 very useful tips and tricks for Microsoft Windows 7. Maybe you knew some of these but I’m sure there are some that you did not heard of. They can prove very useful and can save you a lot of time while using Windows 7.

I’m sure you’re asking yourself where’s the tip number 70? Ok, the tip or advice that will help you work faster and more efficiently, with less frustration is…

70. Just Don’t Use Windows Vista

Yes, this is very useful tip and it is strongly recommended. In fact, I should have put this one on the top of the list, so you better apply it… for your own good.

Windows 7’s Secret | ‘GodMode’

Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden “GodMode” feature that lets users access all of the operating system’s control panels from within a single folder.

By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista, although some are warning that although it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash.

To enter “GodMode,” one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

GodMode.

{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once that is done, the folder’s icon will change to resemble a control panel and will contain dozens of control options. I’m not sure it’s my idea of playing God, but it is a handy way to get to all kinds of controls.

Enjoy….

Change your IP in less than 1 minute

 

1. Click on “Start” in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on “Run”
3. Type in “command” and hit ok

1. Click on “Start” in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on “Run”
3. Type in “command” and hit ok

You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.

4. Type “ipconfig /release” just like that, and hit “enter”
5. Type “exit” and leave the prompt
6. Right-click on “Network Places” or “My Network Places” on your desktop.
7. Click on “properties”

You should now be on a screen with something titled “Local Area Connection”, or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks.

8. Right click on “Local Area Connection” and click “properties”
9. Double-click on the “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” from the list under the “General” tab
10. Click on “Use the following IP address” under the “General” tab
11. Create an IP address (It doesn’t matter what it is. I just type 1 and 2 until i fill the area up).
12. Press “Tab” and it should automatically fill in the “Subnet Mask” section with default numbers.
13. Hit the “Ok” button here
14. Hit the “Ok” button again

You should now be back to the “Local Area Connection” screen.

15. Right-click back on “Local Area Connection” and go to properties again.
16. Go back to the “TCP/IP” settings
17. This time, select “Obtain an IP address automatically”
tongue.gif 18. Hit “Ok”
19. Hit “Ok” again
20. You now have a new IP address

With a little practice, you can easily get this process down to 15 seconds.

P.S:
This only changes your dynamic IP address, not your ISP/IP address. If you plan on hacking a website with this trick be extremely careful, because if they try a little, they can trace it back

Static IP Address Configuration Using Command Line

1. Click “Start” then Click “Run” then type “cmd” and hit Enter.
2. (Please ignore this step if you already logged on as administrator or alike)within the cmd window type “Runas /User:Administrator cmd” where Adminitrator is a user with an administrative privileges(under the administrators group) then it will prompt you for a password. type it and hit Enter.
3. Now you will see a new cmd window with the prompt C:\WINDOWS\system32> , then you are having cmd with administrative privileges.
4. Type “Netsh Interface IP Set Address “local area connection” static 10.10.10.5 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.1 1” this will change your Ip address to 10.10.10.5 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and default gateway 10.10.10.1, please note that if you rename the local area connection to something else you need to place it instead of “local area connection” also if you want to change ip of your Wireless connection you would change it to “Wireless Network Connection” unless you renamed it.(you need to type local area connection with quotation mark ” “)
5. Type “Netsh Interface IP Set Dns “local area connection” static 213.54.26.22” this will change your primary dns ip address to 213.54.26.22
6. if you want to go in the opposite direction changing from static to dynamic (DHCP) the you need to type” Netsh Interface IP Set Address “local area connection” DHCP” and wait for some seconds to pass until it says OK and type “Netsh Interface IP Set Dns “local area connection” DHCP” for DNS.

To be frank I couldn’t figure out how to put multiple DND entries in the static configuration like primary dns and secondary one, if anybody know please post it…..

Static IP Address Configuration Using Command Line

1. Click “Start” then Click “Run” then type “cmd” and hit Enter.
2. (Please ignore this step if you already logged on as administrator or alike)within the cmd window type “Runas /User:Administrator cmd” where Adminitrator is a user with an administrative privileges(under the administrators group) then it will prompt you for a password. type it and hit Enter.
3. Now you will see a new cmd window with the prompt C:\WINDOWS\system32> , then you are having cmd with administrative privileges.
4. Type “Netsh Interface IP Set Address “local area connection” static 10.10.10.5 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.1 1” this will change your Ip address to 10.10.10.5 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and default gateway 10.10.10.1, please note that if you rename the local area connection to something else you need to place it instead of “local area connection” also if you want to change ip of your Wireless connection you would change it to “Wireless Network Connection” unless you renamed it.(you need to type local area connection with quotation mark ” “)
5. Type “Netsh Interface IP Set Dns “local area connection” static 213.54.26.22” this will change your primary dns ip address to 213.54.26.22
6. if you want to go in the opposite direction changing from static to dynamic (DHCP) the you need to type” Netsh Interface IP Set Address “local area connection” DHCP” and wait for some seconds to pass until it says OK and type “Netsh Interface IP Set Dns “local area connection” DHCP” for DNS.

To be frank I couldn’t figure out how to put multiple DND entries in the static configuration like primary dns and secondary one, if anybody know please post it…..