Windows 7 is fast, stable and far more reliable as expected.
And while it doesn't include major new features in its first beta, take the time to explore and you'll find lots of useful changes that will make a real difference in how you use your PC.
Like any version of Windows there are various tips, tweaks and hacks you can perform to get your PC working the way you want it.
Here's the first guide on how to get the most from your Windows 7 installation.
Rocketdock: Rocket dock is a full customizable dock, which can be customized with both skins and icons. Easy to set up and cool.
Rainmeter: Rainmeter is a fully-customizable app, which can display gadgets, meters etc.
Samurize: Don't really know much about this app but it sure looks cool, and its kinda like rainmeter
Windows live gadgets: Then there is of course the windows live gadget gallery. Do notice that some gadgets may not work with windows 7.
Wallpapers: A good way to a good looking desktop is to get a wallpaper in a high res or a res matching you monitor. Google is your friend, but if you are using high res remember to put the res size in the search too, this might get better results. You can also search various wallpaper site around the web.
Custom icons: Another way is to get some good looking icons, instead of the boring default ones.
Changing your start button: This can be done pretty easy, see this thread:
Fences: a great app, that might save your time. Simple and good looking.
Winbubbles: This can be used to changing icons, adding OEM info etc.
Change your startup screen: This is a great little tweak, which looks a lot better than the default startup screen (login screen). You can choose any wallpaper of your choice.
Themes: Themes is a way to customize the windows layout and look. How to change themes see this tutorial:
i am planning to buy 8 new units for my new iCafe, Code: Core i3 2100Intel DPH61WWB3 chipset 4GB DDR3 Memory250 GB HDDNvidia GT 440 1GB 128bit DDR5 here i have a list of what i have done with my current computers Code: 1. disable add/remove items on desktop. . 2. remove Gadgets, Personlization, on desktop right click menu Would anyone recommend more options ,on tweaking for security. . i want to disable task manager regedit msconfig and mmc if my customers are using,
So recently I've seen that some people still use quicklaunch, which perplexes me a bit. I can't think of anything you can do with quicklaunch that you cannot do with the regular pinned icons via a keypress or two. Now I'm not criticizing anyone for continuing to use quicklaunch as it does make some things easier, but it makes me wonder if you who do are aware of how to do some stuff via the pinned icons. Not to mention that the taskbar looks prettier without quicklaunch.
Mostly, actions performed by quicklaunch can be activated via the shift button.
Opening a new instance of a program for example, can be done by shift clicking a pinned taskbar item(or middle clicking).
The most frequent reason I find for using quicklaunch is for opening files with a certain program, like opening pictures with photoshop. This is easily done with pinned items by simply holding shift as you drag the files to the programs. You will get a little tooltip saying "Open file with blah blah", and voila.
Also, if you right click on the programs in the jumplist, normally you don't get a whole lotta options. However, if you shift-right click, you will get all the options you would normally get by accessing the program in its true folder.
Shift-rightclicking on items pinned on the taskbar also allows you minimize windows more readily and stuff. I know that this was out before, but I thought it would be useful for some to reiterate.
I just found how to completely disable ClearType in 7 : Control Panel / System and Security / System / Advanced system settings / Settings under Performance / Unchecked Smooth edges of screen fonts.
My fonts are easier to read now. Hope this will help someone.
Windows 7 has some tweaks to make the OS more fluid, don't get me wrong, i have a ssd, it runs ok, but i guess the os can be tweaked more, like some regedit tweaks ?
if some knows tweaks toAllow the use of the mouse scroll wheel to scroll the context menu when it gets huge with too many commands/shortcuts, instead of clicking that small arrow. Make the Windows Update Start menu shortcut open Windows Update and start Check for updates all at once.
You can make your computer right click context menu look like the screenshot below. You can easily add or remove each menu item separately. Here's the link to the page that further describes this procedure and contains the link to download the .reg files you need to make the changes to the context menu.
Note: "Programs" is programs & features and "run cleanup on this system" is disk cleanup.
Work pc has windows xp but I would love to have the window side by side compare feature in windows 7. I need to compare docs a lot and so this would save time!
Hi everyone. I installed Windows 8 today. I did partition the disk like in a guide, however, I missed where to install...I downloaded a Windows 7 iso image today and burned it to a disk, will I be able to install Windows 7 again from a disc? I still have Windows.old folder in my C drive, is there any way to dual boot Win8 and Windows 7?
I am getting the following error from past 2 days :-It says "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and click "Next."
3. Click "Repair your Computer".
Status: 0xc0000225.
Since i dont have the recovery disc so i downloaded the one from torrent but of no use as it failed to read from the USB.
I installed Win 7 Ultimate onto my brothers Win 7 Home Edn laptop. I didn't realise at first and he has done quite a bit of work on it since the installation, on iTunes and the like. I only noticed the error when trying to activate windows and, of course, as the laptop is Home Edn, and I used an Ultimate disc it didn't take the key on the laptop. So I have now installed Home edition and have the Windows.old folder present. I basically need to put all the programs and file/folders etc into the new OS.
the XF's are lost after rebooting Windows and it does not happen every time, ie occur alternately eg after 2 and sometimes 10 days...then i go to device manager sound and i have sb x-fi but at sound i havnt sound icon so i click right at sb x-fi icon at dm and uninstall...reboot windows..after rebooting sond install by itself my sound card from motherboard is disabled at bios.
the stellar customer service at Dell I have had to recently reinstall windows 7. I was running windows 7 prior to this installation and therefore those files have been moved to windows old. How do I reinstall this file? I'm assuming the process is the same as for other versions but being as I'm not that technically savvy I don't know how to change the command scripts to suit my situation.
I have a PC running Windows 7. It is constantly being locked out, and windows XP and windows 2000 both allow you to use the windows tool ALockout.dll to discover which process is causing the lockouts. Does anyone know if there is a similar program for Windows 7?
MS and their mail systems are giving me grief. I have a Vista 32 PC using "Windows Mail" and want to transfer email folders (lots) and messages to Windows 7 using Windows Live Mail 2011.Windows Mail was a replacement for Outlook express on Vista.Windows Live Mail 2011 is a replacement for Windows Mail on Windows 7.I tried a couple of things.
1) Basic Export and ImportI exported relavent files: Account info, Contacts and all the messages to a folder (in Windows Mail format) on old computer and used the old "Addias" transfer - copied folder to stick and RAN it over to the new computer. - Imported (using the Windows Mail format) the Account info successfully, - imported the Contact info successfully. - Import Messages - appeared at first to be successful
Issue: Message folders appear to be renamed and some folder names have been truncated, not all folders appear to be there. (Looks like "long Name folders greater that 8 characters get truncated)
2) Tried the "Easy transfer mechanism (Vista and Win7 transfer utility) - but couldn't get the new computer to see the Vista even though I could see them on the network. I thought that this would transfer the folder names correctly.I'm about to try a time consuming effort of coping folder by folder (export/Import)What I am more concerned about is that the individaul messages may have the same issue Ie not all coming accross and subject names being lost. Looking for alternative or third party transfer solutions?
I just bought myself some new parts for a new computer I built. After buying the parts and assembling it I tried to install windows 7, keeping in mind that this computer has no previous os installed in it, completely blank. I somehow managed to get to safe mode and install till the part where it says expanding windows files completing that step fully and rebooting to continue the installation, I have no idea why but after when it restarts, it freezes at the "starting windows" screen with the four orb animation. It should just go to the next screen with the blue wallpaper asking me for the language I would like and what not. But it just gets stuck there and doesn't move on, I tried
rebooting removing as much devices I had plugged into the motherboard removing everything but the mouse and key board removing the graphics card removing one of the two sticks of ram
[code]...
I have tried everything I know of and I don't think I need to update my bios because no one else has encountered this problem. Swell I am not very good with computers I am very new to this so...I also heard about updating drivers , but don't u need to actually be able to login to your computer to download and install them? I can't even log in, I wait for the windows logo to pass but it never does please help Tom Hardware community.
I bought a new computer that came with a Win 7 HP license, however I already have a copy of Win 7 Ultimate on another smaller HDD that dual boots with XP.I have copied the Win 7 HP partition to the smaller HDD that has dual boot Win 7 Ultimate / XP using EASUS Partition Manager. Then I disk copied the smaller HDD to the new larger HDD thus wiping the original contents of the HDD.So far so good, the larger HDD now has C: Windows 7 Ultimate; D: XP Pro; E: Windows 7 HP. Of course the boot manager only has entries for the C: and D: partition.I think I can use bcdedit to add another entry but I am a little confused about how to do this, I've seen examples for Win 7 and XP or Vista but not for 2 copies of Win 7. Can anyone tell me what bcdedit commands I need to run? For instance I could run "bcdedit /create {} /d "Win 7 HP" but I don't know what to put inside of the {}, I think I need a new UUID but I don't know if I should be running "bcdedit /createstore" first or something else.
Yesterday i wanted to change my OS to windows 7 64bits (I had windows 7 32bits before and worked just fine). The installation goes well but when windows install tries to reboot to complete the installation it hangs on "windows start" and reboot again and again. I tried several solutions such as
- Install using a different cd (3 different cds and same problem) - Install from USB flash (not even working) - Fix boot system (from command prompt using windows repair cd) - Re-install windows 32 bits (same problem) - boot in Safe mode (same problem it reboots again and again) - Windows system repair (from cd)
PS:I have a Dell inspiron M 560 (Core 2 Quad, 4Go in RAM).
I have a Toshiba Satellite A505-S69803; serial number Y9340538Q, with Windows 7, 500Gb HDD at 5400rpm and 4Gb RAM... I think that's all correct.Anyway, long story short, I got a b!tch of a virus, which apparantly was doing all sorts of nasty things to the explorer.exe file in particular. So I backed up all my important stuff: files, Uni work, writings, music and photos etc onto an external hard-drive and went about restoring the laptop to out-of-box factory settings by making the Windows 7 Recovery Media Discs. But when I try to use the discs I get told after about 30 minutes The Toshiba Recovery Wizard "Can't read from the source file or disk: PREINST5.SW5" with options to: Try Again (The same thing happens), or Skip (Same message again), or Cancel (in which case I'm back where I started).After the Recovery Wizard failed I chose the option to erase the hard-drive; it then appeared that when I turn on the laptop as normal I was told <Error>: F3-F200-0002 and the Recovery Media Disks still refuse to work.Now, if I turn on the laptop as normal a message telling me to insert the installation disc, choose language and click "repair your computer". So I put in the recovery disc and get the same message.
Toshiba can't help as my A505 is an American model in Britain and out of warranty anyway. Europe Toshiba HQ don't supply the recovery media for the A505 and the American based Toshiba aren't allowed to send the Recovery Media to Europe; so apparantly I get no help from them. And Microsoft can't help me because my laptop was purchased with everything pre-installed so the codes associated with my Windows and Office are comletely irrelevent.I have been told that I need to purchase a compeltely new hard-drive and purchase Windows 7 brand new to get my laptop back up and running. Purchasing a new OS isn't too much of an issue because I can just get XP for a tenner, validate it with Microsoft and then get a student upgrade onto W7-Ult for �60. So �70 in total, I'm fine with that. But do I need a new hard-drive too? Or can I rescue everything I already had?
I just installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my Dell Optiplex 755. It originally had Windows Vista Business. 64 bit OS. After Win 7 Ultimate installed I immediately want to access files or folders and I'm hit with a Explorer.EXE
Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.So after doing some research I re-installed a second time this time formatting the drive first. Then installing Windows 7 Ultimate. As soon as I get to the desktop I received the same error as mentioned.
I am unable to download windows updates KB2524375 and KB9478321 for my windows 7 home premium. I have downloaded Hot Fix KB947821 but still get error. Log shows MUM 0X00F0900. Its seems that I have a registration problem but my windows was downloaded on my new acer computer. These are the only updates I have been unable to install.
Had a bad storm last night, so I shut down the comp. Restarted this a.m. tried to stream the Arsenal match and mozilla would crash every time I tried to leave the home page. Went to IE, watched the match, and then began to TS moz. After a bit I decided to unistall. Upon trying to reinstall i get a corrupt file error msg during extraction. I then tried to d.l. Chrome and had problems w. that too. Yet amazingly enough, IE works fine. Is this Microsoft just f'in w. me 'cause I'm not amused?I also notice that in my start menu I have no quick select icons for network connections, control panel, etc.
Mobo: Biostar A880GU3 CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 GPU: ATI HD 5770 PSU: Corsair 750w RAM: 4GB (2x2) DDR 3 HDD: WD 320gb OS: Win 7 Pro 64bit
I've just recently purchased a generic wireless mouse from eBay. more specifically, this one: 2.4GHz USB Receiver Wireless Optical Mouse F PC Laptop | eBay it doesn't work. I'm running Windows 7 64bit and it started installing the drivers, first it was installing "HID Wireless Mouse", then it switched to "USB Input Device" but failed after 3 seconds. now it's listed in Device Manager as "USB Input Device" with yellow sign that indicates it doesn't work. I tested it in 2 other Windows 7 32bit computers and it works just fine! installing drivers and everything. moreover - I testes my bro's logitech wireless mouse on my 64bit Windows 7 computer and it works fine. I think Windows fails on recognizing it. I mean the drivers are there.. the Logitech Mouse works but mine doesn't.. how do I make it work?
Formatted Windows 7 loads shows Win 7 Logo and Screen blank with cursor
I have an Acer laptop 4551, got hit by nasty viruses and on top no restore intact. I formatted the hard drive which gave me an error 83% and stopped. Today I turned on laptop to install fresh genuine Windows 7, I popped in the DVD and done everything in BIOS selected Boot from CD. Everything was Ok I hit enter to Continue then comes the Windows 7 logo and after that a blank black screen with Cursor, that's it! I done that some 5/6 times but no luck.
I have a lenovo pc 9210 all diags pass all hardware is good. was running xp fine loaded vista ok loaded windows 7 32 bit runs ok, needs windows 7 64 bit...loaded windows 7 64, reboots after load begins first time setup then completes as normalreboots ....and hard drive light blinks .... then starts to start windows 7 but gets the four colored dots then just sits there no more hd lights no , no nothing.
I transferd all of my music files from my old laptop whih is a toshiba windows vista. Most of the files have the artist, album and genre. Howvere, when i view them on my new laptop a lenovo ideapad iwndows 7, it isn't showing the properties for most of them...some yes...but very few. i just dont get it. I tried t save to a hard drive and then save to the new comp and to save to a flash drive and upload...same result both ways. I dont want to have to go through all 2000+ musc files and reenter all the properties..
