Welcome to the secrets of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Here you will discover some hints and tips of speeding up your system, system tweaks and some hidden Windows Vista surprises.

Although every care is taken to ensure these instructions are correct, backup your system beforehand.

They are aimed at advanced users who know how to use this reference guide.

Windows XP, Vista and Se7en are great looking operating systems with some awesome features, but they can be slow as molasses unless you've got a hugely powerful PC to run them.

For most computers however, a few quick tweaks can make a massive difference in the speed of your computer for everyday use.

Here's a list of recommended XP, Vista and Se7en performance and speed tweaks.
Windows XP
Tips & Tricks

Opening Ports or Adding Allowed Programs with SP2's Firewall
1. Click on Start / Run
2. Enter in firewall.cpl
3. Click on the Exceptions tab

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Adding a Port for Internet Access
1. Click on the Add Port button
2. Name it whatever you want
3. Enter in the ports you want to open

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Adding a Program for Internet Access
1. Click on Add Program... button
2. A list of all installed programs will be displayed
3. Highlight the one you want to include for Internet access
4. Click on the OK button

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Autoexec.nt or Config.nt Errors
If you are getting errors similar to:

The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications.

Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

Try copying the file from windows repair directory to the one that is in the C:windowssystem32 directory.

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Common Control Panel Applets
The following are some common Control Panel Applets that are located in the C:windowssystem32 directory.

If you find yourself using any of these frequently, then you can simply make shortcuts to them on your desktop.

appwiz.cpl >> Add/Remove Programs
desk.cpl >> Display Properties
firewall.cpl >> Firewall Settings
inetcpl.cpl >> Internet Options
mmsys.cpl >> Sound and Audio
ncpa.cpl >> Network Connections
nusrmgr.cpl >> User Accounts
powercfg.cpl >> Power Options
sysdm.cpl >>System Properties
wscui.cpl >> Security Center
wuaucpl.cpl >> Automatic Updates Configuration

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Windows Explorer Opens Search Companion Rather than the Folder
If the Windows Explorer opens up the Search Companion rather than opening up the actual folder, the default setting for opening a folder is changed.

To correct this:

Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Directory shell

Edit the default value to be explorer or none

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Guest Only Network Access
If you try and connect to an XP computer and are shown a logins screen with only the computer name/Guest.

You may need to change one of the Local Security Policies:

Got to Control Panel - Administrative Tools

Go to Local Policies - Security Options

Check tech Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts

Set it to Classic - local users authenticate as themselves

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Hiding an XP Computer from Network Neighborhood
If you want to share files from a XP computer, yet want to remove it from showing up in the Network Neighborhood,

Run net config server /hidden

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Easy Way to Share Multiple Folders
If you need to share multiple folders, running the program SHRPUBW.EXE will bring up a simple dialog box to let you:

Browse to the folder you want to share

Enter in a Share name

Enter in a Share description

Set permissions. Several choices are available

Restart the process from within the same program

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Not Viewing Zip Files as Folders
If you want to turn off WindowsXP showing Zip files as folders,
just run:

regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll

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Setting Capslock, Numlock, Scroll Lock
If you want to set the startup state for any or all of these keys, you just need to edit the registry.

Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Control Panel Keyboard

Open InitialKeyboardIndicators

Change the value to one of the following numbers

0 - All Keys off
1 - Caps Lock on
2 - Num Lock on
4 - Scroll Lock on

For multiple keys, add their values:

3 - Caps Lock and Num Lock on
5 - Caps Lock and Scroll Lock on
6 - Num Lock and Scroll Lock on
7 - Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock on

Log off and back on again

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Restoring Desktop Icon to the Quicklaunch Bar
If you mistakenly deleted the icon for the Desktop on the Quicklaunch toolbar.
 
Go to Documents and Settings user_nameApplication DataMicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch

(where user_name is replaced by your login name)

Create a Text file called ShowDesktop.SCF with the following contents:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

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Network Access After Norton Anti-Virus Install
Sometimes you can't access a WinXP computer after installing Norton Anti-Virus.
 
There might be a variety of errors at the other computer depending on the operating system.

On the XP computer, in the Event Viewer / System log, there will be the following error:

The server's configuration parameter "irpstacksize" is too small for the server to use a local device.

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServiceslanmanserverparameters
Edit the IRPStackSize
Give it a value of 15
Reboot the computer

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Configure for Auto-Logon
If you are the only person using the computer and want to have it automatically log you on.
 
Start / Run / "control userpasswords2" - no quotes

Uncheck User must enter a user name and password to use this computer Services you can disable

There are quite a few services you can disable from starting automatically.

This would be to speed up your boot time and free resources.

They are only suggestions so I suggest you read the description of each one when you run Services and that you turn them off one at a time.

Some possibilities are:
* Alerter - Sends alert messages to specified users that are connected to the server computer.

* Application Management - Allows software to tap directly into the Add/Remove Programs feature via the Windows Installer technology.

* Background Intelligent Transfer Service - The Background Intelligent Transfer service is used by programs (such as Windows AutoUpdate) to download files by using spare bandwidth.

* Clipbook - ClipBook permits you to cut and paste text and graphics over the network.

* Error Reporting Service - Allows applications to send error reports to Microsoft in the event of an application fault.

* Fast User Switching - Windows XP allows users to switch quickly between accounts, without requiring them to log off.

* Help and Support - Allows the XP Built-in Help and Support Center to run.

* IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service - You don't need this if you have other software to create CDs.

* Indexing Service - Indexes contents and properties of files on local and remote computers; provides rapid access to files through flexible querying language.

* IP SEC - Manages IP security policy and starts the ISAKMP/Oakley (IKE) and the IP security driver. If you are not on a domain, you likely don't need this running.

* Messenger - Transmits net send and Alerter service messages between clients and servers. This is how a lot of pop-up windows start appearing on your desktop.

* Net Logon - Supports pass-through authentication of account logon events for computers in a domain. If you are not on a domain, you don't need this running

* Network DDE - Provides network transport and security for Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) for programs running on the same computer or on different computers.

*NT LM Security Support Provider - Provides security to remote procedure call (RPC) programs that use transports other than named pipes.

* Performance Logs and Alerts - Collects performance data from local or remote computers based on preconfigured schedule parameters, then writes the data to a log or triggers an alert. If you don't need to monitor your performance logs, then you don't need this service.

* Portable Media Serial Number - Retrieves the serial number of any portable music player connected to your computer

* QOS RSVP - Provides network signaling and local traffic control setup functionality for QoS-aware programs and control applets.

* Remote Desktop Help Session Manager - Manages and controls Remote Assistance. If you are not using Remote Desktop you don't need this service.

* Remote Registry - Enables remote users to modify registry settings on this computer.

* Routing & Remote Access - Offers routing services to businesses in local area and wide area network environments. Allows dial-in access.

* Secondary Login - Enables starting processes under alternate credentials. This is what allows you to run an application as another user.

* Smart Card - Manages access to smart cards read by this computer.

* Smart Card Helper - Enables support for legacy non-plug and play smart-card readers used by this computer.

* SSDP Discovery Service - Enables discovery of UPnP devices on your home network.

* TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper - Enables support for NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) service and NetBIOS name resolution. This should not be needed in today's network environment.

* Telnet - Enables a remote user to log on to this computer and run programs, and supports various TCP/IP Telnet clients.

* Uninterruptible Power Supply Service - Manages an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) connected to the computer.

* Universal Plug and Play Device Host - Provides support to host Universal Plug and Play devices

* Upload Manager - Manages synchronous and asynchronous file transfers between clients and servers on the network.

* Volume Shadow Copy Service - Manages and implements Volume Shadow Copies used for backup and other purposes.

* Web Client - Enables Windows-based programs to create, access, and modify non-local files across the Internet.

* Wireless Zero Configuration - Provides automatic configuration for the 802.11 adapters

* WMI Performance Adapter - Provides performance library information from WMI HiPerf providers.

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Cleaning the Prefetch Directory
WindowsXP has a new feature called Prefetch.

This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs.

However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.

To clean this periodically go to:

Star / Run / Prefetch

Press Ctrl-A to highlight all the shorcuts

Delete them

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Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages
To turn these off:
 
Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurr entVersionpoliciessystem

If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named DisableStatusMessages

Give it a value of 1

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Repair Install
If XP is corrupted to the point where none of the previous solutions get it to boot, you can do a Repair Install that might work as well as keep the current settings.

Make sure you have your valid WindowsXP key.

The whole process takes about:: half an hour depending on your computer

If you are being prompted for the administrator's password, you need to choose the 2nd repair option, not the first.

Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD

At the second R=Repair option, press the R key

This will start the repair

Press F8 for I Agree at the Licensing Agreement

Press R when the directory where WindowsXP is installed is shown. Typically this is C:WINDOWS

It will then check the C: drive and start copying files

It will automatically reboot when needed. Keep the CD in the drive.

You will then see the graphic part of the repair that is like during a normal install of XP (Collecting Information, Dynamic Update, Preparing Installation, Installing Windows, Finalizing Installation)

When prompted, click on the Next button

When prompted, enter your XP key

Normally you will want to keep the same Workgroup or Domain name

The computer will reboot

Then you will have the same screens as a normal XP Install

Activate if you want (usually a good idea)

Register if you want (but not necessary)

Finish

At this point you should be able to log in with any existing accounts.

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NTOSKRNL Missing or Corrupt
If you get an error that NTOSKRNL not found:

Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.

At the first R=Repair option, press the R key

Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.

Typically this will be #1

Change to the drive that has the CD ROM.

CD i386

expand ntkrnlmp.ex_ C:WindowsSystem32ntoskrnl.exe

If WindowsXP is installed in a different location, just make the necessary change to C:Windows

Take out the CD ROM and type exit

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HAL.DLL Missing or Corrupt
If you get an error regarding a missing or corrupt hal.dll file, it might simply be the BOOT.INI file on the root of the C: drive that is misconfigured

Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.

At the first R=Repair option, press the R key

Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.

Typically this will be #1

Type bootcfg /list to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file

Type bootcfg /rebuild to repair it

Take out the CD ROM and type exit

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Corrupted or Missing WINDOWSSYSTEM32CONFIG
If you get the error:

Windows could not start because the following files is missing or corrupt

WINDOWSSYSTEM32CONFIGSYSTEM or WINDOWSSYSTEM32CONFIGSOFTWARE

Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.

At the first R=Repair option, press the R key

Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.

Typically this will be #1

Enter in the administrator password when requested

cd windowssystem32config

Depending on which section was corrupted:

ren software software.bad or ren system system.bad

Depending on which section was corrupted

copy windowsrepairsystem

copy windowsrepairsoftware

Take out the CD ROM and type exit

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NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM Not Found
If you get an error that NTLDR is not found during bootup,

If you have FAT32 partitions, it is much simpler than with NTFS.

Just boot with a Win98 floppy and copy the NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM files from the i386 directory to the root of the C: drive.

For NTFS:

Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.

At the first R=Repair option, press the R key

Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.

Typically this will be #1

Enter in the administrator password when requested

Enter in the following commands (X: is replaced by the actual drive letter that is assigned to the CD ROM drive.

COPY X:i386NTLDR C:

COPY X:i386NTDETECT.COM C:

Take out the CD ROM and type exit

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Bringing Up the Shutdown Dialog Box
Create a new txt file somewhere on your system, open it and put in this one line:

(new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application").ShutdownWindow s();

Save and Close the file. Change the extension to js and your got it.

You can make a shortcut to that file to make it easy to shut down your system.

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Hiding the Last User Logged On
If you use the standard NT style of login and want to hide the last user:

Start the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)

Go to Computer Configuration / Windows Settings / Security Settings / Local Policies / Security Options

Scroll down to Interactive logon: Do not display last user name

Set it to Enable

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Poweroff at Shutdown
If your computer does not turn off the power when doing a shutdown, you may need to edit the registry.

We have all the correct BIOS and Power settings and still needed to do this.

Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop

Edit the key PowerOffActive and give it a value of 1

You can do the same in HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTControl PanelDesktop

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Remembering Folder Settings
If XP does not remember your folder settings, delete or rename the following registry keys

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShell NoRoamBagMRU]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShell NoRoamBags]

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Preventing Applications from Stealing the Focus
To prevent applications from stealing the focus from the window you are working

Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Control Panel Desktop

Edit the key ForegroundLockTimeout

Give it a value of 00030d40

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Disable Explorer Thumbnail View
If you want disable the Explorer's ability to show the Thumbnail View
 
Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer Advanced

Change ClassicViewState to 1

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Disable Shared Documents
To disable the Shared Documents folder that shows up on the network

Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Policies Explorer

Create a new DWORD Value

Give it the name NoSharedDocuments

Give it a value of 1

Log off or reboot

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Removing Thumbs.db Files
When viewing a folder with the Thumbnail view, WindowsXP creates a thumbs.db file.

This is a cache of the current pictures in that directory.

If you want to turn this feature off and save a little disk space

Start the Windows Explorer

Go to Tools / Folder Options / View

In the first section under Files and Folders, check Do not cache thumbnails

Now you can search for the thumbs.db file on your computer and remove them. No more should be created.

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Enable / Disable the Task Manager
Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurre ntVersionPoliciesSystem

Create the Dword value DisableTaskMgr

Give it a value of 0 to enable it

Give it a vaule of 1 to disable it

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Clearing the Page File on Shutdown
Another way to set the computer to clear the pagefile without directly editing the registry is:

Click on the Start button

Go to the Control Panel

Administrative Tools

Local Security Policy

Local Policies

Click on Security Options

Right hand menu - right click on "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile"

Select "Enable"

Reboot

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If you want to clear the page file on each shutdown
Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetContro lSession ManagerMemory ManagementClearPageFileAtShutdown

Set the value to 1

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No GUI Boot
If you don't need to see the XP boot logo

Run MSCONFIG

Click on the BOOT.INI tab

Check the box for /NOGUIBOOT

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Using the Classic Search in Explorer
If you prefer to use the classic search style in Explorer

 Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurre ntVersionExplorerCabinetState

Add a String Key called Use Search Asst

Give it a value of no Go to top

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Changing Drive Letters
If you want to change the letters assigned to your fixed or removable drives

Right Click on My Computer

Select Manage

Select Disk Management

For a Fixed Disk:

Select it

Right click

Select Change Drive Letter and Path

Click on the Edit button

Enter in the letter you want to use

For a Removable Disk:

In the lower, right hand panel, right click on the Disk or CD ROM #

Select Change Drive Letter and Path

Click on the Edit button

Enter in the letter you want to use

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Changing the Registered Owner
Start Regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersion

From there you can edit the name in the Registered Owner key

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Decreasing Boot Time
Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the time it takes to boot to WindowsXP

The program is called BootVis

Uncompress the file.

Run BOOTVIS.EXE

For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays

This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark

After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs of your system startup.

Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the red vertical line)

Then run Trace / Optimize System

Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays

Note how much the time has decreased

Ours went from approximately 39 to 30 seconds.

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Hide/Unhide Logon Names
If you want to hide or unhide the names of users that are displayed on the initial logon screen:

Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion Winlogon SpecialAccounts UserList

Add a DWORD with the name of the user account you want to hide

Make sure it has a value of 0

If there is an existing account, you can unhide it by giving it a value of 1

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WindowsXP Command Line Utilities
While there are a lot of command line utilities in WindowsXP, here are some that I have been using lately.

bootcfg - Configures, queries, or changes Boot.ini file settings.

driverquery - Displays a list of all installed device drivers and their properties.

getmac - Returns the media access control (MAC) address and list of network protocols associated with each address for all network cards in each computer

gpresult - Displays Group Policy settings and Resultant Set of Policy (RSOP) for a user or a computer

netsh - You can use commands in the Netsh Interface IP context to configure the TCP/IP protocol

schtasks - Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time

systeminfo - Displays detailed configuration information about:: a computer and its operating system

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Creating an Automated Install of WindowsXP
On the WindowsXP CP, in the SUPPORTTOOLS directory, there is a file called DEPLOY.CAB.

Extract the programs DEPLOY.CHM (help file) and SETUPMGR.EXE (main program)

Run SETUPMGR and answer the prompts.

This will create both a unattend.bat and unattend.txt file you can use for automated installs.

Note: The batch file might need some minor modification for file locations but it is fairly basic.

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Disabling Hibernation
If you don't want to use up the disk space taken by Hibernation, or don't need to use it at all, you can easily disable it.

Open up the Control Panel / Power Options icon

Click on the Hibernation icon

Uncheck Enable Hibernation

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Increasing System Performance
If you have 512mb or more of memory, you can increase system performance by having the core system kept in memory.

Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetContro lSession ManagerMemory ManagementDisablePagingExecutive

Set the value to be 1

Reboot the computer

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Common Command Console Utilities
WindowsXP comes with quite a few console utilities you can easily run from the command line:

Computer Management - compmgmt.msc

Disk Managment - diskmgmt.msc

Device Manager - devmgmt.msc

Disk Defrag - dfrg.msc

Event Viewer - eventvwr.msc

Shared Folders - fsmgmt.msc

Group Policies - gpedit.msc

Local Users and Groups - lusrmgr.msc

Performance Monitor - perfmon.msc

Resultant Set of Policies - rsop.msc

Local Security Settings - secpol.msc

Services - services.msc

Component Services - comexp.msc

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Automatically Ending Non-Responsive Tasks
Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktopAutoEndTasks

Set the value to be 1

In the same section, change the WaitToKillAppTimeout to the number of milliseconds you want.

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Changing the Internet Explorer Title
Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMainWindow Title

Enter what you want appear in the title bar.

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Changing Programs That Start Automatically
WindowsXP has a similar program, MSCONFIG, that was available in Windows98.

This allows you to view and change what programs are automatically started each time you log in.

The new version also allows you to view and edit the boot.ini file (as well as check for errors and use several advanced switches).
Windows Vista
Tips & Tricks
1. Turn off Windows Search Indexing
Windows Vista search indexing is constantly reviewing files on your system to make their contents available for quick searching.

This is handy, but can severely impact system performance.

To disable this constant indexing:

* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the C: Drive
* On General Tab, Uncheck Index this drive for faster searching
* On the subsequent dialog box, Select Include subfolders and files

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2. Turn off Remote Differential Compression
Remote Differential Compression measures the changes in files over a network to transfer them with minimal bandwidth rather than transferring an entire file that has previously been moved.

By constantly checking for file changes, this service can hinder system performance.

To disable this service:

* Open Control Panel
* Switch to Classic View
* Select Program Features
* Choose Turn Windows features on and off
* Scroll down and uncheck Remote Differential Compression

* Special Note: Windows Vista has the same tendency as XP to get bogged down with a bloated and corrupt Windows registry and file system.

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 3. Turn off Automatic Windows Defender Operation
Windows Defender real-time protection against malware continues to run despite having Automatic operation disabled.

To disable Automatic Windows Defender:

* Open Control Panel
* Select Windows Defender
* Choose Tools from the top menu
* Select Options
* Uncheck Auto Start at the bottom of the window

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4. Turn off Automatic Disk Defragmentation
Windows Vista and its always-on defragment feature isn't really that necessary and can cause system slow down.

Just remember to run a defragmentation manually every month.

To disable Auto Disk Defragmentation:

* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the C: Drive
* Select the Tools Tab
* Uncheck Run on a schedule

* Important: Keeping your hard drive defragmented is key to great system performance, but it's very important not to neglect Vista's core files, dll structure, and file/path reference system. )

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5. Add a 2GB or higher USB Flash drive to take advantage of Windows Ready Boost (Additional Memory Cache)
Ready Boost is Microsoft's name for using a USB thumb/flash drive to provide some quick access memory the operating system can use as extra RAM.

The Ready Boost system can significantly improve system performance.

To set Ready Boost:

* Insert a USB Flash Drive (preferably 2GB or more)
* Click Start then Computer
* Right Click the USB Drive in My Computer
* Select the Ready Boost Tab
* Choose Use this device
* Select as much space as you can free up for RAM usage vs. Storage

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6. Turn off Windows Hibernation
Windows hibernation background services can use a large amount of system resources.

If you don't use the Hibernate feature on a regular basis you may want to disable it to give Vista a performance boost.

To disable Hibernation:

* Select the Control Panel then Power Options
* Click Change Plan Settings
* Click on Change Advanced Power Settings
* Expand the Sleep selection
* Expand the Hibernate After selection
* Crank the selector down to zero
* Click Apply

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7. Turn off System Restore
Analysis and restore point creation by Windows Vista can eat a fair amount of system resources.

Disabling this service will obviously mean the system restore feature in Vista will not be available in the event of a system crash.

Change this at your own risk.

* Control Panel>System
* Click System Protection on the left panel
* Uncheck the main system drive
* Agree to the confirmation

* Note: The best protection against ever needing to restore your PC is regular file cleaning and maintenance.

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 8. Disable User Access Control (UAC)
This much-loathed new Vista feature attempts to protect your system from malware infection by making you manually confirm a whole host of everyday user operations.

While it doesn't directly impact performance, it can be annoying and might be more hassle than good.

To disable User Access Control:

* Click Start then Control Panel
* Select User Accounts
* Select Turn User Account Control on or off
* Uncheck User Account Control Box
* Restart as recommended

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9. Disable excess Windows Services that Auto-Launch at Startup
Just like Windows XP, Vista ships with all kinds of services enabled that load at startup and may never be used by most users.

To see what loads at startup and disable the ones you likely won't be needing (they can always be started manually later):

* Click Start then Control Panel
* Select Administrative Tools
* Choose System Configuration
* Click the Services Tab
* You can safely deselect:
* Offline Files (unless you're using Offline File Sync)
* Tablet PC Input Service (unless you have a tablet PC)
* Terminal Services
* Windows Search (If you have already disabled indexing)
* Fax (unless you're using a fax modem)

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10. Disable Excess Windows Features
Windows ships with other features that are listed separately in the Vista operating system from the startup services.

You can view and disable these features by:

* Clicking Start then Control Panel
* Select Program Features
* On the left panel, select Turn Windows Features on or off
* You can safely deselect:
* Indexing Service
* Remote Differential Compression
* Tablet PC Optional Components
* Windows DFS Replication Service
* Windows Fax & Scan (unless you use a modem for faxing)
* Windows Meeting Space (unless you use the Live Meeting Service).

Windows 7
Tips & Tricks
  1. Windows Management.
    By now, you’ve probably seen that Windows 7 does a lot to make window management easier.

    You can “dock” a window to the left or right half of the screen by simply dragging it to the edge; similarly, you can drag the window to the top of the screen to maximize it, and double-click the window top / bottom border to maximize it vertically with the same horizontal width.

    What you might not know is that all these actions are also available with keyboard shortcuts:

    • Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow dock;
    • Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow maximizes and restores / minimizes;
    • Win+Shift+Up Arrow and Win+Shift+Down Arrow maximizes and restores the vertical size.

    This side-by-side docking feature is particularly invaluable on wide-screen monitors.

    It makes the old Windows way of shift-clicking on two items in the task bar and then using the context menu to arrange them feel really painful.

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  2. Display Projection.
    Have you had enough of messing around with weird and wonderful O.E.M display driver utilities to get your notebook display onto an external projector?

    In that case, you’ll be pleased to know that projection is really quick and simple with Windows 7.

    Just hit Win+P, and you’ll be rewarded by the following pop-up window:
     
    Use the arrow keys (or keep hitting Win+P) to switch to “clone”, “extend” or “external only” display settings.

    You can also access the application as displayswitch.exe.

    If you want broader control over presentation settings, you can also press Win+X to open the Windows Mobility Center.

    This allows you to turn on a presentation “mode” that switches IM clients to do not disturb, disables screensavers, sets a neutral wallpaper etc.

    Note:     that this feature is also available in Windows Vista.

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  3. Cut Out The Clutter.
    Working on a document in a window and want to get rid of all the extraneous background noise?

    Simply hit Win+Home to minimize all the non-active background windows, keeping the window you’re using in its current position.

    When you’re ready, simply press Win+Home again to restore the background windows to their original locations.

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  4. Multi-Monitor Windows Management.
    The earlier tip on window management showed how you can dock windows within a monitor.

    One refinement of those shortcuts is that you can use Win+Shift+Left Arrow and Win+Shift+Right Arrow to move windows from one monitor to another – keeping them in the same relative location to the monitor’s top-left origin.

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  5. Command Junkies Only.
    One of the most popular power toys in Windows XP was “Open Command Prompt Here”, which enabled you to use the graphical shell to browse around the file system.

    Also being able to use the context menu to open a command prompt at the current working directory.

    In Windows 7 (and in Windows Vista, incidentally – although not many folk knew about it), you can simply hold the Shift key down while selecting the context menu to get exactly the same effect.

    If the current working directory is a network location, it will automatically map a drive letter for you.

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  6. It’s a Global Village.
    If you’ve tried to change your desktop wallpaper, you’ve probably noticed that there’s a set of wallpapers there that match the locale you selected when you installed Windows.

    (If you picked US, you’ll see beautiful views of Crater Lake in Oregon, the Arches National Park, a beach in Hawai’i, etc.)

    In fact, there are several sets of themed wallpapers installed based on the language you choose, but the others are in a hidden directory.

    If you’re feeling in an international mood, simply browse to C:WindowsGlobalizationMCT and you’ll see a series of pictures under the Wallpaper directory for each country.

    Just double-click on the theme file in the Theme directory to display a rotation through all the pictures for that country.

    Note: that some countries contain a generic set of place holder art for now.

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  7. The Black Box Recorder.
    Every developer wishes there was a way that an end-users could quickly and simply record a report for the problem that they’re running into that is unique to their machine.

    Windows 7 comes to the rescue!

    Part of the in-built diagnostic tools that we use internally to send feedback on the product, the Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions.

    Once you hit “record”, it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them.

    Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based “slide show” of the steps.

    The program is called psr.exe; you can also search for it from Control Panel under “Record steps to reproduce a problem”.

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  8. The Font of All Knowledge.
    Windows 7 got rid of the Add Fonts dialog that has served Windows faithfully for the last twenty years.

    (Of course, for most of that time, it’s been deprecated – the easy way to install a set of fonts has simply been to drag them into the Fonts folder via Control Panel.)

    But now font installation is really easy – Windows 7 has an added “Install” button to the font viewer applet that takes care of the installation process:

    There are lots of other new features built into Windows 7 that will satisfy those of a typographic bent, incidentally – grouping multiple weights together, the ability to hide fonts based on regional settings, a new text rendering engine built into the DirectWrite API, and support in the Font common file dialog for more than the four “standard” weights.

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  9. Gabriola.
    As well as the other typographic features mentioned above, Windows 7 includes Gabriola, an elaborate display type from the Tiro Typeworks foundry that takes advantage of OpenType Layout to provide a variety of stylistic sets, flourishes and ornamentation ligatures.

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  10. Who Stole My Browser?
    If you feel like Internet Explorer is taking a long time to load your page, it’s worth taking a look at the add-ons you have installed.

    One of the more helpful little additions in Internet Explorer 8 is instrumentation for add-on initialization, allowing you to quickly see whether you’re sitting around waiting for plug-ins to load.

    Just click Tools / Manage Add-ons, and then scroll right in the list view to see the load time.

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  11. Rearranging the Furniture.
    Unless you’ve seen it demonstrated, you may not know that the icons in the new taskbar aren’t fixed in-place.

    You can reorder them to suit your needs, whether they’re pinned shortcuts or running applications.

    What’s particularly nice is that once they’re reordered, you can start a new instance of any of the first five icons by pressing Win+1, Win+2, Win+3 etc.

    What’s less well-known is that you can similarly drag the system tray icons around to rearrange their order, or move them in and out of the hidden icon list.

    It’s an easy way to customize your system to show the things you want, where you want them.

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  12. Installing from a USB Memory Stick.
    If you are wanting to install to a Netbook you can using a USB Memory Stick.

    Like most netbook-class devices, you will find they have no built-in media drive.

    The solution: Using a spare 4GB USB 2.0 thumbdrive, we reformatted it as FAT32, and simply copied the contents of the Windows 7 Beta ISO image to the memory stick using xcopy e: f: /e /f (where e: was the DVD drive and f: was the removable drive location).

    Not only was it easy to boot and install from the thumbdrive, it was also super fast: quicker than the corresponding DVD install on my desktop machine.

    It’s also worth noting in passing that Windows 7 is far better suited to a netbook than any previous operating system.

    Iit has a much lighter hard drive and memory footprint than Windows Vista, while also being able to optimize for solid state drives (for example, it switches off disk defragmentation since random read access is as fast as sequential read access, and it handles file deletions differently to minimize wear on the solid state drive).

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  13. I Want My Quick Launch Toolbar Back!
    You might have noticed that the old faithful Quick Launch toolbar is not only disabled by default in Windows 7, it’s actually missing from the list of toolbars.

    As is probably obvious, the concept of having a set of pinned shortcut icons is now integrated directly into the new taskbar.

    Based on early user interface testing, we think that the vast majority of users out there will be quite happy with the new model, but if you’re after the retro behavior, you’ll be pleased to know that the old shortcuts are all still there.

    To re-enable it, do the following:

    • Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
    • In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
      %userprofile%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch
    • Turn off the “lock the taskbar” setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that “Show text” and “Show title” are disabled and the view is set to “small icons”.
    • Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.

    If it’s not obvious by the steps above, it’s worth noting that this isn’t something we’re exactly desperate for folks to re-enable, but it’s there if you really need it for some reason.

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  14. It’s a Drag.
    Much play has been made of the Jump Lists feature in Windows 7, allowing applications like Windows Live Messenger to offer an easy task-based entry point.

    Jump lists replace the default right-click context menu in the new taskbar; another way to access them (particularly useful if you’re running Windows 7 on a one-button MacBook) is by left-clicking and dragging up in a kind of “swooshing” motion.

    This was designed for touch-enabled devices like the HP TouchSmart all-in-one PC, where the same gesture applies.

    Another place where you can “swoosh” (not an official Microsoft term) is the IE 8 address bar, where the downward drag gesture brings up an expanded list containing the browser history, favorites and similar entries.

    The slower you drag, the cooler the animation!

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  15. Standards Support.
    Most reviews of Windows 7 that we’ve seen have noted the revamped WordPad and Paint applets that add an Office-like ribbon to expose their functionality.

    Few, however, have noticed one small but hopefully appreciated feature WordPad can now read and write both the Word 2007-compatible Open Office XML file format but also the OpenDocument specification that IBM and Sun have been advocating.

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  16. Windows Vista-Style Taskbar.
    For those who really would prefer a look more reminiscent of Windows Vista, the good news is that it’s easy to customize the look of the taskbar to more closely mirror the old version:
     
    To achieve this look, right-click on the taskbar and choose the properties dialog.

    Select the “small icons” checkbox and under the “taskbar buttons” setting, choose “combine when taskbar is full”.

    It’s not pixel-perfect in accuracy, but it’s close from a functionality point of view.

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  17. Peeking at the Desktop.
    While we’re on the taskbar, it’s worth noting a few subtleties.

    You’ve probably seen the small rectangle in the bottom right hand corner: this is the feature called “Aero Peek”, which enables you to see any gadgets or icons you’ve got on your desktop.

    Note: that there’s a keyboard shortcut that does the same thing – just press     Win+Space.

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  18. Running with Elevated Rights.
    Want to quickly launch a taskbar-docked application as an administrator?

    It’s easy – hold down Ctrl+Shift while you click on the icon, and you’ll immediately launch it with full administrative rights (assuming your account has the necessary permissions, of course!)

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  19. One More of the Same, Please.
    We’ve had reports of a few folk caught out by this one.

    If you’ve already got an application open on your desktop (for example, a command prompt window), and you want to open a second instance of the same application, you don’t have to go back to the start menu.

    You can simply hold down the Shift key while clicking on the taskbar icon, and it will open a new instance of the application rather than switching to the existing application.

    For a keyboard-free shortcut, you can middle-click with the third mouse button to do the same thing. (This trick assumes that your application supports multiple running instances, naturally.)

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  20. Specialized Windows Switching.
    Another feature that power users will love is the ability to do a kind of “Alt+Tab” switching across windows that belong to just one application.

    For example, if you’ve got five Outlook message windows open along with ten other windows, you can quickly tab through just the Outlook windows by holding down the Ctrl key while you repeatedly click on the single Outlook icon.

    This will toggle through each of the five Outlook windows in order, and is way faster than opening Alt+Tab and trying to figure out which of the tiny thumbnail images relates to the specific message you’re trying to find.

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  21. Walking Through the Taskbar.
    Another “secret” Windows shortcut: press Win+T to move the focus to the taskbar.

    Once you’re there, you can use the arrow keys to select a particular window or group and then hit Enter to launch or activate it.

    As ever, you can cancel out of this mode by hitting the Esc key.

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  22. image The Widescreen Tip.
    Almost every display sold these days is widescreen, whether you’re buying a notebook computer or a monitor.

    While it might be great for watching DVDs, when you’re trying to get work done it can sometimes feel like you’re a little squeezed for vertical space.

    The Windows 7 taskbar feels almost as if it was designed with vertical mode as the default – the icons work well on the side of the screen, shortcuts like the Win+T trick mentioned previously automatically switch from left/right arrows to up/down arrows, and so on.

    The net effect is that you wind up with a much better proportioned working space.

    Try it – in particular, if you’ve got a netbook computer that has a 1024x600 display, you’ll immediately appreciate the extra space for browsing the Internet.

    For the first day you’ll feel a little out of sync, but then we guarantee you’ll become an enthusiastic convert!

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  23. Pin Your Favorite Folders.
    If you’re always working in the same four or five folders, you can quickly pin them with the Explorer icon on the taskbar.

    Hold the right-click button down and drag the folder to the taskbar, and it will be automatically pinned in the Explorer Jump List.

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  24. Starting Explorer from “My Computer”.
    If you spend more time manipulating files outside of the documents folders than inside, you might want to change the default starting directory for Windows Explorer so that it opens at the Computer node:
     
    To do this, navigate to Windows Explorer in the Start Menu (it’s in the Accessories folder).

    Then edit the properties and change the target to read:
    %SystemRoot%explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

    If you want the change to affect the icon on the taskbar, you’ll need to unpin and repin it to the taskbar so that the new shortcut takes affect.

    It’s worth noting that Win+E will continue to display the documents library as the default view.

    We’ve not found a way to change this from the shell at this time.

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  25. ClearType Text Tuning and Display Color Calibration.
    If you want to tune up your display for image or text display, we have the tools included out of the box.

    It’s amazing what a difference this makes.

    You’d adjust the brightness and contrast settings on that fancy 42” HDTV you’ve just bought: why wouldn’t you do the same for the computer displays that you stare at every day?      ;)

    Check out cttune.exe and dccw.exe respectively, or run the applets from Control Panel.

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  26. ISO Burning.
    Easy to miss if you’re not looking for it: you can double-click on any DVD or CD .ISO image and you’ll see a helpful little applet that will enable you to burn the image to a blank disc.

    No more grappling for shareware utilities!

  27. Windows Movie Maker.
    Windows 7 doesn’t include a movie editing tool – it’s been moved to the Windows Live Essentials package, along with Photo Gallery, Mail and Messenger.

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  28. Hiding the Windows Live Messenger Icon.
    Hopefully your first act after Windows 7 setup completed was to download and install the Windows Live Essentials suite of applications (if not, then you’re missing out on a significant part of the Windows experience).

    If you’re a heavy user of IM, you may love the way that Windows Live Messenger is front and central on the taskbar, where you can easily change status and quickly send an IM to someone:

    On the other hand, you may prefer to keep Windows Live Messenger in the system tray where it’s been for previous releases.

    If so, you can fool the application into the old style of behavior.

    To do this, close Windows Live Messenger, edit the shortcut properties and set the application to run in Windows Vista compatibility mode. Bingo!

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  29. Enjoy The Fish.
    I’m surprised that not many people seem to have caught the subtle joke with the Siamese fighting fish that is part of the default background.

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  30. When All Else Fails…
    There are always those times when you’re in a really bad spot – you can’t boot up properly, and what you really want is something you can quickly use to get at a command prompt so you can properly troubleshoot.

    Windows 7 now includes the ability to create a system repair disc, which is essentially a CD-bootable version of Windows that just includes the command prompt and a suite of system tools.

    Just type “system repair disc” in the Start Menu search box, and you’ll be led to the utility.

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Last updated: Saturday, June 19th, 2010
 
                      



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