Hide and show desktop icons, maketransparent backgrounds. Tips Every Windows 7 User Needs To Know. Your OS drives your whole PC experience, so it's your job as an enthusiast to keep it in a high state of tune. Here's how to do just that with Windows 7. After installing a new OS, most people just jump right in and start driving it through all their favorite applications and games. Makes sense, right? The operating system, after all, should be a background player in the computing experience- a means to an end, with the end being web surfing, content editing, and wanton destruction in the first- person shooter of one's choice. The problem, however, is that most people, even a lot of self- described power users, never take the time to really tune the new OS, exploring its menus and setting up the interface for the fastest, most convenient operation based on personal preferences. And as operating systems offer more and more user controls, it's the curious, performance- minded enthusiast who has the most to gain from tuning an OS to his or her liking. It's been about six months since Windows 7 hit the market, so we figure most of our readers have made their upgrades. For those who've made that jump, we present a bottle of our favorite Windows 7 tips, each designed to help you extract the very last bits of convenience and GUI- navigating performance from your own personal dream machine. And if you haven't yet upgraded to Win. Lab- benchmarked performance- kicks Vista and XP ass. We close out our tuning session with a tip designed to supercharge the process of installing the OS. By loading Windows 7 onto a USB key, and making that key a bootable drive, you can do an end- run around slow optical- drive technology and install your OS in (pardon the pun) a flash. It's time to get started. Park your computer, but don't shut down. This is one PC tune- up that can only be done with your engine running. Keyboard Shortcuts for Committed Mouse Abolitionists. Let's kick off this power- user party with keyboard shortcuts- tricks every enthusiast should memorize when mastering a new OS. We're confident the following time- saving keystrokes will save you precious neural processing cycles, and make your mouse jealous with neglect. Alt + PIn Windows Explorer, this shortcut activates a preview pane of your selected file, be it an image, sound, or video document. This panel is great for previewing images in your photos directory, obviating the need for fancier third- party software. Windows + Up and Windows + Down. If a window isn't maximized, pressing the Windows + Up arrow key will make it fill your entire screen. This quick and easy tutorial will walk you through the steps to fix a file. History Windows Vista. The Aero interface was unveiled for Windows Vista as a complete redesign of the Windows interface, replacing Windows XP's "Luna" theme. Save and restore the positions of the Windows Desktop Icons. DesktopOK is a small but effective solution for user that have to change the screen resolution often. Download apps about Desktop for windows like assassins creed ii, mouse jiggler, free 45 best nature hd wallpaper pack. Windows + Down arrow will minimize that active window. Windows + Shift + Up and Windows + Shift + Down. Hitting these three keys will vertically stretch an active window to the maximum desktop height (the width of the window, however, will stay the same). Pressing Windows + Shift+ Down will restore the window to its previous dimensions. Windows + + and Windows + - Pressing the Windows button with either the plus or minus key activates the Magnifier, letting you zoom in on the entire desktop or open a rectangular magnifying lens to zoom in on (and out of) parts of your screen. You can also customize the Magnifier to follow your mouse pointer or keyboard cursor. Windows + Left and Windows + Right. These two shortcuts will make your active window fill up exactly one half of your screen- depending on which arrow key you use. And once a window is fixed to one side of the screen, you can repeat the shortcut with the same arrow key to flip it to the other side. Windows + Home. This shortcut minimizes every open window on your desktop except the active window. Pressing this shortcut again restores all the minimized windows. Windows + TLike Alt + Tab (still our all- time- favorite Windows shortcut), Windows + T cycles through thumbnails of your open programs via the Taskbar's peek menu. Windows + EAutomatically opens up a new Explorer window to show your Libraries folder. Windows + PManage your multiple- monitor setup more efficiently with this handy shortcut. Windows + P opens a small overlay that lets you configure a second display or projector. You can switch from a single monitor to dual- display in either mirror or extend- desktop mode. Windows + Shift + Left and Windows + Shift + Right. If you're using two or more displays- and you are, aren't you?- memorize this shortcut to easily move a window from one screen to the other. The window retains its size and relative position on the new screen, which is useful when working with multiple documents. Windows + . Windows + 1, for example, launches the first application in the taskbar, while Windows + 4 will launch the fourth. Windows + Space. This combo performs the same function as moving your mouse to the bottom right of the Taskbar: It makes every active window transparent (save faint outlines) so you can view the desktop underneath. Track Your Actions with Problem Step Recorder. To aid their development of Windows 7 beta versions, the Microsoft engineers built in a diagnostic tool called Problem Steps Recorder that combines screen captures with mouse tracking to record your actions. You can launch this program from the Start Menu by typing psr. Hit the Record button and the applet tracks your mouse and keyboard input while taking screenshots that correspond with each new action. When you stop recording, your session is saved to an HTML slide show recreating your steps, to which you can add comments and annotations. The Add Fonts dialog is history, and in its place is new functionality within the Fonts folder itself. Get help, support, and tutorials for Windows products—Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, and Windows 10 Mobile. How can I change Font and change other appearance and color setting in win 8.1? This tool is insanely useful if you need to create a tutorial for a computer- illiterate relative. Hi Mom, hi Dad! Master Your New Font Manager. Font management is much improved in Windows 7. The Add Fonts dialog is history, and in its place is new functionality within the Fonts folder itself. First, the folder now shows font previews via each font file's icon (visible with Large or Extra Large icon views). Second, fonts from a single set will no longer show up as different fonts; they're now combined as a single family, which can be expanded by double- clicking the icon. Third, you can now toggle fonts on and off by right- clicking a font icon and selecting the Hide option. This prevents applications from loading the font (thus saving memory), but still keeps the file retained in the Font folder. Finally, Windows 7 includes a new fancy, free- flowing font called Gabriola that shows off the advanced antialiasing, text rendering, and . In Vista, Games for Windows titles and other game shortcuts automatically install to this directory, which you can only access with a Start Menu shortcut. This scheme prevents you from starting a game from the Start Menu search bar (aka the power user, keyboard- only method). Indeed, while you can launch any other application by mashing the Windows key, and typing its name in the Start Menu field, this isn't the case for games installed to Vista's Games Folder. Well, this oversight is fixed in Windows 7, and the universe is now home to slightly less evil. Burn a Spittin' Image. You can quit messing around with ostensibly free, malware- infected burning software, because Windows 7 comes loaded with a DVD and CD ISO burning application. Just double- click your image file and Windows will start a tiny program window to help burn your disc. It's a bare- bones app, but it works! Become More Wordly with Hidden Wallpapers. Besides its default desktop wallpaper, Win. OS). We Americans, for example, get six 1. National Parks and beaches. However, if your tastes run more international- don't worry, we won't hold that against you- you can grab wallpapers for other regions from a hidden folder. Type globalization in a search of your C: drive. The only result should be a folder located in the main Windows directory, and you should only be able to see ELS and Sorting folders nested here. Now search for MCT in the top- right search bar. This will display five new unindexed folders, each corresponding to a different global region. Browse these folders for some extra themes and wallpapers specific to Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Canada. Take Control of UACDespite good intentions, User Account Control pop- ups were one of the most annoying aspects of Vista, and thus UAC became a feature that most of us immediately disabled after a clean install. UAC in Windows 7 displays fewer warnings, but you can also fine- tune its notification habits by launching the UAC Settings dialog from the Start Menu. Just type UAC in the Start Menu search field and click the result. We find that setting the bar to just one tick above . You can now toggle between Standard, Scientific, Programmer, and even Statistics modes. In addition, the Options menu lets you pull out many new automated conversation tools, such as Unit Conversion (e. Angles, Temperature, Velocity, and Volume) and Date Calculation (e. More templates give you the ability to crunch gas mileage, lease tipping points, and even mortgage estimates (yeah, right!) based on any variables you input. Reveal All of Your Drives. If you use built- in memory- card readers in a 3. My Computer. But that doesn't mean they're not still there. To reveal hidden memory card slots, open My Computer. Press Alt to show the toolbar at the top of the screen, and go to Folder Options under Tools. Hit the View tab and uncheck the ? Windows 7 comes to your rescue with its Devices and Printers dialog. Open Control Panel and select View Devices and Printers from the Hardware and Sound category. Right- click a device icon in Devices and Printers to configure the hardware, create shortcuts, troubleshoot, view properties, and run programs. Devices and Printers can save you a lot of effort. For example, when you use it to manage your computer, you have one- touch access to 1. Control Panel and Explorer interfaces. And when you use a Windows 7–specific driver that supports Device Stage, Devices and Printers uses thumbnail art of the actual device, as shown. Calibrate Your Notebook's Text and Color.
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