Make your OS better with these outstanding tips, tricks, and hacks that improve XP, Vista, and even Windows 7
By now, many of you will have a fresh copy of Windows 7 in your hands, ready to load up onto your PC (we show you the right way to do it). But while that stock Windows install may be OK for your mom, but is it good enough for you? Never! You deserve a Windows that soars above the clouds, swift and strong. That’s why we collected our team of Windows experts and spent countless hours mucking around in the registry, downloading little-known tools, and searching for new keyboard shortcuts to bring you this, our finest Windows tips guide of all time.
Dig it: we give you the definitive list of kick-ass, Maximum PC–approved tips and tweaks for Windows, whether you run XP, Vista, or Windows 7. While some are specific to Microsoft’s latest OS (you’ve upgraded, right?), many will work on XP and Vista, as well. So sit back, relax, and get ready to make Windows better.
Windows 7 Secrets Unveiled! As good as it is, Windows 7 can be made even better with these nifty tricks
Order Windows 7 to Generate an Energy Report
Windows 7 adds functionality to powercfg.exe to help you better analyze power consumption issues on your PC. To create a report, spawn a command-line box with administrator privileges. To do this, press the Windows key, and type cmd in the search box. Right-click on cmd and select Run as Administrator. Now select the box and type powercfg -energy. Powercfg will run for about 60 seconds, then generate a report called energy-report.html in C:\Windows\system32. This report will notify you of anything in your computer that is keeping the CPU turning, which in turn means burning more power and sucking down more battery life.
For example, if you want to save power, don’t run Sidebar gadgets. From the runs we’ve tested, most of the problems are due to USB devices that don’t properly support or shut-off to save power. While you might think the power consumption of a USB doohickey is pretty insignificant, if it prevents the CPU or south bridge from switching off, a trickle of power can add up to a significant hit where it hurts—your battery life. The energy report won’t fix the problem, but it’s a great tool to help you get started.
Supercharge Your PC with HomeGroups
HomeGroups make it really easy to share files and printers between your computers, but unfortunately you can only connect to a HomeGroup if you’re using Windows 7. Set up your HomeGroup in the networking control panel, then your music, photos, video, and documents will all be shared with other machines in the HomeGroup. If you want to share individual files you can by right-clicking them, and choosing the appropriate option from the Share With menu.
Launch Apps By Dragging Files to the Taskbar
We’ve already talked about pinning frequently used files to the Taskbar, but what if you want to open a file in a particular application by drag-and-dropping it in on the Taskbar icon OS X–style? All you need to do is hold down Shift when you drop the file on the Taskbar icon. You can even open files with applications that aren’t associated with that particular file type using this trick!
Using Libraries like a Pro
Libraries are virtual folders that let you collect similar files in one handy location. Windows 7 ships with several default Libraries for music, photos, and documents, but you can supercharge them by adding additional files and directories. For example, we add commonly used network shares to the documents Library. The machine hosting the share will need to have Windows Desktop Search 4.0 or higher running on it, or you’ll need to right-click on the folder you want to add and select Always Available Offline.
Harness the Power of the Jump List
Jump lists are another new Windows 7 feature. You can use them to keep shortcuts to commonly used files—not apps—easily accessible, one click away from the shortcut you use to launch the app. To add a file to a Jump List, all you need to do is drag it onto the appropriate app’s Taskbar icon. To access the Jump Lists you can right-click any Taskbar shortcut, once you (or the app) has added items.
Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Launch Apps
With the new Windows 7 Taskbar comes a whole host of new keyboard shortcuts. You’ve probably heard of the Windows key + 1–0 shortcuts, which launch the apps on your taskbar (if they’re closed) or bring them to focus (if they’re running), but there are some other kick-ass hotkeys as well. Win+T cycles through all the Taskbar apps. Win+Shift+right arrow and Win+Shift+left arrow let you move the currently focused window from monitor to monitor. Finally, Win+Space gives you a quick look at the Desktop.
Three Reasons Why Mouse Gestures are Your Friend
We love having the option to activate core UI tasks using mouse gestures in Firefox, and now Window 7 adds a handful of gestures for window management. Grab a window and drag it to the top of the screen to maximize it, drag it to either side to make it fill half the screen, or shake the window to minimize everything else. Finally, you can access an application’s Jump List by clicking on its Taskbar icon and dragging up. That’s just dandy!
Easily Check Your PC for Windows XP Mode Support
Don’t know if your PC has what it takes to support Win7’s Windows XP mode? Besides needing Win7 Pro, Ultimate, or Enterprise, you’ll also need a CPU with hardware virtualization support. To query your system, download Steve Gibson’s free utility Securable. Once you’ve downloaded it, fire it up and it will tell you if your CPU supports 64-bit or not, if hardware DEP is supported, and if hardware virtualization is in the proc.
Access the True Power of the Windows 7 Calculator
With Windows 7, a couple of the old staples like Paint, Notepad, and Calculator have gotten a graphical facelift. With the calculator, though, the improvements go beyond skin deep. In addition to the standard arithmetic calculator, Windows 7 brings Statistics, Scientific, and Programmer modes to the calculator, along with specialized functions for calculating fuel economy, leases, and even your mortgage. Does the calculator still look like it always did to you? Check out the View menu—that’s where all the goodies are hidden.
Add Websites to Native Windows Search
New to Windows 7 is Search Federation, which allows Windows 7 to add remote sources of documents (such as Flickr or YouTube) to Windows’ native search interface. Simply find an .odsx “connector” file for a service you want to search (Google “Windows 7 Flickr search connector,” for instance), download and run it. The search will be added to your User > Searches directory.
Make ISO Burning Simple and Fast
With Windows 7, Microsoft finally introduces native support for burning disc images. Just right-click an ISO file and select Burn Disc Image to bring up the Windows Disc Image Burner. It’s pretty bare-bones, but how much chrome do you really need here?
Mount Virtual Hard Drives with Ease
Got virtual machines? Now you can mount your virtual hard drive (.vhd file) and access it via Explorer just like you would any other drive, so you can pull data from it, or even transfer it easily between computers. Create, attach, and format VHDs from Disk Management. Just go to Disk Management, click a disk, and go to the Action menu, where you can create a new VHD or mount one from hard drive.
Easily Switch Between Displays with Win+P
Connecting your laptop to a projector or external monitor has never been easier. Just hook up the device to your computer, and hit Win+P. This brings up a display menu: You can choose to show your desktop on either the computer or the projector, duplicate your desktop on both, or extend it to the external monitor. It’s perfect for playing movies or giving that all-important PowerPoint at work.
Calibrate your Screen with Display Color Wizard
Whether you’re using a wall projector or small LCD, we recommend running the Display Color Calibration tool to optimize Windows 7’s color rendering. Launch the app by typing dccw in the Start Menu. The wizard will run you through a series of steps where you can adjust the gamma, brightness, contrast, and color of the screen to make images look their best.
Change Windows Explorer’s Default Launch Folder
By default, launching Windows Explorer (the shortcut for which is Win+E) takes you to the Libraries directory, but you may be more comfortable with My Computer as the starting node, especially if you want to browse multiple hard drives or network drives. To change the launch folder, access Windows Explorer by typing explorer in the Start Menu search field, right-clicking the first result, and selecting Properties. Under the Shortcut tab, change the Target field to %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
Create a Wallpaper Slideshow from RSS
Windows 7 supports creating wallpaper slide shows via RSS, but it’s hardly simple. Go to C:\Windows\
Resources\Themes and make a copy of one of the themes (we picked aero.theme) to your Desktop. Open it in Notepad and add the following code to the file:
[slideshow]
Interval=1800000
Shuffle=1
RssFeed=(your RSS feed goes here)
Then save it, and double-click to install your theme. Only RSS feeds that include images as enclosure items will work.
Search the Internet from the Start Menu
The search prompt in the Start Menu normally finds files only on your computer, but you can enable it to launch your default browser to search the Internet. Open the Group Policy Editor by running gpedit.msc in the Start Menu. Go to User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Start Menu and Taskbar. Right-click the “Add Search Internet link to Start Menu” setting and set it to Enable. Unfortunately, this works only on versions of Windows that include the Group Policy Editor, so Home Premium users are out of luck.
Bring Back the Vista-Style Taskbar
If you prefer Vista’s Taskbar to Windows 7’s, you can bring it back. Right-click the Taskbar and select Properties. Check the “Use small icons” box and select the “Combine when taskbar is full” option under the Taskbar Buttons drop menu. Launched programs will now display their full names in the Taskbar, and multiple instances of a program won’t group into one icon until the Taskbar is full. You can also bring back the Quick Launch toolbar by adding a new toolbar with the following string: %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Don't have Windows 7? Never fear, we've got a boatload of tips for XP and Vista users. Psst, most work in Win7, too!
Search Network Shares
Searching network shares is easy, if you have access to the machine that’s hosting those shares. Installing Windows Desktop Search 4.0 on a Windows machine that supports it will make any shares hosted on that machine searchable by the user. That applies to XP, Vista, and Home Server. If you want to search non-Windows network shares, you’ll need to install a third-party tool, such as Copernic Desktop Search Professional ($50, www.copernic.com).
Open a Command Line in Any Folder
The days of typing long folder addresses in Command Prompt are over, at least if you run Vista or Windows 7. Rather than opening a command prompt and typing cd Desktop\Cat Pictures\Cats on a Skateboard\Two Cats One Skateboard\, just Shift+right-click to add “open command line here” to your right-click context menu.
'Run As' a Different User
This tip is a little bit of a cheat, since it’s not something totally new to Windows 7, but actually a feature that existed in Windows XP, was removed in Vista, then reintroduced in Microsoft’s latest OS. To run a program as a different user, with access to that user’s settings and documents, hold shift and right-click an executable, then choose Run as Different User.
Make 64-bit Windows Handle PDF Previews Properly
PDF previews have been a perennial hassle to get working properly in 64-bit Windows, but luckily, it’s easy to fix that. Open Regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}, where you should see an existing AppID value. Change that to {534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C} and reboot. Then Windows (and Outlook) will properly display PDF previews.
Make 64-bit Windows Show Photoshop Previews
On the subject of proper preview-handling, files associated with Photoshop typically don’t show up in 64-bit Windows. We’re talking about PSDs, TIFFs, and TGAs, for the most part, but there are some other, even more esoteric formats that are omitted by default. Luckily, there’s a little utility called MysticThumbs (donateware, http://mysticcoder.net/MysticThumbs/) that fixes the problem. Install it, reboot, and bask in the glory of the thumbnail preview revolution.
Run Programs as an Administrator
In Windows XP and later, some operations—such as those that change core system or user account settings—can only be performed by the Administrator account. However, it’s bad form to run using the Administrator account all the time. You can use the Run as Administrator function to get the privileges you need, when you need them, without constantly switching user accounts. In Windows XP, right-click a program and choose Run As. In Vista or 7 just right-click an executable and choose Run as Administrator.
Use Shadow Explorer to Save Your Bacon
The low-rent versions of Vista don’t allow you to go back in time for older versions of files the way Ultimate does. Fortunately, although Microsoft disabled your access to the shadow copy feature, it didn’t actually remove it. The OS is always secretly making backups, you just can’t access them. To get around this, use the free Shadow Explorer from Shadowexplorer.com to reach back in time for that tax return from two months ago.
Make Windows Keep Custom Folder View Settings
Windows will often assume certain folders contain photos or music—even if they don’t—and change your folder view options. You can overwrite Windows’ view preferences by setting a custom default view. Open any folder containing files, access the Properties menu, and head to the Customize tab. Under folder templates, select Documents to change back to the default view. Next, right-click within the folder again and change the View option to Details. You can add, remove, or change the order of the Details categories shown by right-clicking the category labels and choosing the More… option. Once you have a Details setting to your liking, make this the standard view for all folders by going to the Folder Options menu under Tools, the View tab, and then clicking Apply to All Folders.
Master Your File System with Symbolic Links
Symbolic links allow you create a sort of “super shortcut”—a folder that exists in two places in the file system at once. Why is this useful? Because it means the file system is finally totally under your control. A game doesn’t let you choose where you store save files? Replace the default directory with a symbolic link to whatever location you want. Learn how to set up symbolic links, and how to use them with Dropbox to take all your apps online by clicking here.
Create a Custom Keyboard Shortcut to Launch Any Program
To avoid cluttering up your Desktop with shortcut icons, you can assign unique keyboard shortcuts to any application (or even document). First, you’ll need to create a normal shortcut to your target program if one doesn’t exist already. Right-click the executable and click Create Shortcut. Next, right-click the new shortcut file and select Properties. Type your desired keyboard shortcut in the Shortcut key field. The keyboard shortcut has to either be prefaced with “Ctrl+Alt” or you can assign it to a key on the numpad. This shortcut will work on your Desktop, while you’re in Windows Explorer, and even if you’re in other programs.
Use msconfig to See What's Running on Your PC
One of the handiest tools for keeping your computer booting and running smoothly is the System Configuration client. With it, you can view and edit the list of programs and services that start with your computer (including the hidden ones), as well as access a list of useful tools for administering your system. You can find it three layers deep in the control panel, or you can open the Run dialogue and type msconfig.
Supercharge Windows Media Player with FFDShow Tryouts
While some editions of Windows 7 come preinstalled with Divx and H.264 video codecs, Vista and XP users who use Windows Media Player are stuck with limited playback support. To play more than just WMV-encoded files, download FFDShow Tryouts (http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/), an all-inclusive DirectShow filter that plays an expansive range of video and audio codecs, along with robust configuration options.
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