Seven Things We will Love About Windows 7

Beyond a shadow of doubt, Windows 7 is better than its predecessor Windows Vista in more ways than one. It is faster and consumes less system resources despite maintaining the eye candy. But that's not all. We will tell you exactly why we love it more than any of the previous versions of Windows.


1. No more worrying about missing drivers







The first thing you notice about Windows 7 after installation is that, it is more likely that you will not have to install any hardware driver, as most of it has already been included in the OS. If at all you need an updated driver, you can always get it quickly and without hassle from Windows Update. You are therefore likely to see a clean device manager like shown above as there will be no device with a driver issue or a conflict.

2. Problem Steps Recorder





This is a very important and probably a lifesaving feature of Windows 7. This feature lets you record a particular problem you are experiencing with your PC, so you can send it to someone who may be better equipped to solve the problem. All you need to do is to open the Problem Steps Recorder, click 'Record', after which a screenshot is taken with every mouse click. You can also add comments if required in between. A properly formatted HTML document with all the screenshots in steps and comments is created and placed inside a ZIP archive on the desktop to be attached and emailed to an expert.


3. Pin to Start Menu or Windows Taskbar





While you do not have the Quick Launch Bar, which made things so much convenient in Windows XP, you can easily "Pin" frequently used items and programs to the Start Menu as well as to the Windows Taskbar by simply right-clicking on the item in the Taskbar and selecting 'Pin to Start Menu' or 'Pin to Taskbar' as required. The item or program then becomes readily available and your desktop becomes clutter-free.

4. Superior Touch Navigation

Since "Touch" is the keyword today and an increasing number of gadgets come with a touch interface, it is imperative that the future PC will also move on to such an interface. Windows 7 makes it a point to have better touch navigation. It has a larger taskbar with large icons, which makes it easier to navigate using your finger tips. It also sports multi-touch gestures, similar to the Macbook, on various applications that will dramatically change the way you interact with them. It automatically detects Touchscreen hardware and enhances the size of the Start Menu and icons accordingly.


5. Windows Disc Image Burner





Finally, an ISO image is no longer burnt as a data file to an optical disc, but as an ISO image in this version of Windows. All you need to do is double-click on the ISO image, which starts the Windows Disc Image Burner application. You can select the burner where you wish to burn, in case you have more than one burners installed. You can even verify if the data is burnt properly by checking a checkbox.

6. Snazzy preview or peek panes





In Windows Vista you could preview the minimized window of an application by simply hovering the mouse cursor over the application item in the taskbar. Now, Windows 7 goes a step further. Not only can it show live preview of the application window, you can also see or "peek" at the full size window in the foreground by simply moving the cursor over this mini preview without actually bringing the window to the foreground. There is also a close window X at the upper right corner in the preview pane, so that you can directly close the application this way. Pressing Win + T lets you scroll along previews in the taskbar.



                                         & finally.......

7. Virtual Windows XP





For those of you still in love with XP, fret no more. Like Windows Vista, Windows 7 too will have the same problems running applications meant for XP, but there is something that will make you feel relieved. Microsoft offers an XP Mode for Windows 7, which can be downloaded from Microsoft website, and works in conjunction with Windows Virtual PC, which is also a free download. This is effectively a virtual machine running in this operating system. You can access the complete hardware of your actual PC inside this virtual environment, including the USB flash drives connected to ports and also optical drives. What's more, this comes free, so you don't have to shell out extra for this OS.

Why Microsoft Used the NameWindows 7?

Windows 7 has been released to
public but many people are so
much confused about its name.
People are talking about why
did Microsoft use the name
Windows 7?
In this topic, we'll try to
explain the reason behind it!
The decision to use the name
Windows 7 is about simplicity.
Over the years, we have taken
different approaches to naming
Windows. We've used version
numbers like Windows 3.1, or
dates like Windows 98, or
"aspirational" monikers like
Windows XP or Windows Vista.
And since we do not ship new
versions of Windows every
year, using a date did not make
sense. Likewise, coming up
with an all-new "aspirational"
name does not do justice to
what we are trying to achieve,
which is to stay firmly rooted
in our aspirations for Windows
Vista, while evolving and
refining the substantial
investments in platform
technology in Windows Vista
into the next generation of
Windows.
Simply put, this is the seventh
release of Windows, so
therefore "Windows 7" just
makes sense.
And if you are confused why
Windows 7 is the 7th release of
Windows, here is another
simple explanation:
First Windows version was
Windows 1.0. Second was
Windows 2.0 and third was
Windows 3.0. When Windows
NT was released, it was code
versioned as Windows 3.1.
Windows 95, 98, 98 SE and ME
(Millennium Edition) were code
versioned as Windows 4.0 as all
were using Non-NT kernel or 9x
kernel.
Windows 2000 was code
versioned as Windows 5.0 and
Windows XP as Windows 5.1.
Next version was Windows
Vista which was code
versioned as Windows 6.0.
Since Windows 7 is the next
Windows version, Microsoft
decided to call it Windows 7 for
easy and better understanding.
1.0: Windows 1.0
2.0: Windows 2.0
3.0: Windows 3.0
3.1: Windows NT
4.0: Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME
5.0: Windows 2000
5.1: Windows XP
6.0: Windows Vista
7.0: Windows 7

Here is a better way for easy IP Check!

This tweak was based on the Easy IP Check tweak.
Use this if you just want to display your IP address and not the extra information such as default gateway / subnet mask.

• Simply copy and paste the following into notepad:

@echo.
@ipconfig find "IP Address"
@echo.

@pause

• Save as IP.BAT (save to your windows dir if you want to be able to access it anywhere)
  

Now when you type IP you will see:

---------------------------

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : x.x.x.x

Press any key to continue . . .
---------------------------

How to Disable error reporting!!

Disabling error reporting failure message in few easy steps::

• Open Control Panel
• Click on Performance and Maintenance.
• Click on System.

• Then click on the Advanced tab
• Click on the error-reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
• Select Disable error reporting.
• Click OK

Set Multiple Home Pages In Firefox!!!

Did you people ever wish to set-up multiple home pages in Firefox ?

If yes, then you are at the right place. So here’s the way to do this little but useful little trick.

Suppose you would like to set Orkut, Google and yahoo as your homepages.

Then try this tweak in Firefox to set multiple homepages. This is what you should do :

• Goto Tools=>Options=>Main
• Choose Show my home page
• In Home page give your homepages separated by a (pipe symbol) Example: http://www.google.comhttp://www.orkut.comhttp://www.yahoo.com
• Click OK Now next time when you start Firefox all of your three home pages will be displayed simultaneously.

How to Launch On-Screen Keyboard in Windows XP ??

Here is how you launch it:

• Go to start
• Go to run and type OSK

• Then the keyboard comes on

It's just that simple. It's best to make a desktop icon for it or a shortcut, because if your keyboard should go out on you, it would be handy to have it. All you do to create the shortcut is to:

• Right click on the desktop
• Click the new shortcut button
• Type osk, click next twice, and there you have it.

XP keys for the Xp users!!

Here are some of the Windows XP keys which wont expire try it out ::

• QB2BW-8PJ2D-9X7JK-BCCRT-D233Y
• FM9FY-TMF7Q-KCKCT-V9T29-TBBBG
• DTWB2-VX8WY-FG8R3-X696T-66Y46
• RBDC9-VTRC8-D7072-J97JY-PRVMG
• BX6HT-MDJKW-H2J4X-BX67W-TVVFG

How to create shortcut to lock your computer!!

• Right-click the desktop.
• The Create Shortcut Wizard opens.
• In the text box, type the following:
  rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

• Click Next.
• Point to New, and then click Shortcut.
• Enter a name for the shortcut.
• You can call it "Log off" or choose any name you like.
• Click Finish.
  

You can also change the shortcut's icon (my personal favorite is the padlock icon in shell32.dll).

To change the icon:

• Right click the shortcut Folder or File
• Select Properties.
• Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button.
• Then Look for icons in this file text box, type:
  Shell32.dll. or Empty space
• Click OK.
• Select one of the icons from the list and then
• click OK

You could also give it a shortcut keystroke such CTRL+ALT+L. This would save you only one keystroke from the normal command, but it could be more convenient.

Make your folders invisible...:)

• Right Click on the desktop. Make a new folder


• Now rename the folder with a space (U have to hold ALT key and type 0160).


• Now u have a folder with out a name.



• Right click on the folder -> properties -> customize.


• Click on change icon.


• Scroll a bit, u should find some empty spaces Click on any one of them.


• Click ok


• To find your hidden folder press ctrl+A.

That’s it, now u can store your personal data without any 3rd party tools.

Different ways to shutdown Windows!!

There are so many different ways to turn off your Windows XP computer, let's look at some of them:

• The standard approach - click the Start Button with your mouse, then select the Turn Off menu and finally click the Turn Off icon on the Turn Off computer dialog.
• Press Ctrl+Esc key or the Win key and press u two times - the fastest approach.
• Get the Shutdown utility from Download.com - it add the shut down shortcuts for you.
• Create a shutdown shortcut on your desktop. Right click on the desktop, choose New Shortcut and type shutdown -s -t 00 in the area where you are asked to specify the location of the program file. Now you can just double click this icon to turn off the computer. The best location would be your quick launch bar.
• Press the Win key + R key to open the run window. Type shutdown -s -t 00. [s means shutdown while t means the duration after which you want to initiate the shutdown process].
  If some open processes or application won't let you turn off, append a -f switch to force a shut down by closing all active processes.
• Win+M to minimize all windows and then Alt+F4 to bring the Turn Off computer dialog.
• Open Windows Task manager (by right clicking the Windows Task bar or Alt+Ctrl+Del) and choose Shut down from the menu. Useful when the Windows are not responding.
• Note:: Some of the above steps might not work in Windows 98 and in some older operating systems!!

Changing password through safe mode!!!

In case of user password boot the pc in safemode

• by pressing the F8key
• then select the Safe Mode option.
• You can now logon as anadministrator and XP wont prompt for the password.

Incase of anadministrator account try rebooting the pc in DOS.

• access C:\Windows\system32\config\sam
• Rename SAM as SAM.mj
• Now XP wont ask for password next time You Login.
• Also Go to the cmd prompt.
• Type net user *.
• It will list all the users.
• Again type net user "administrator" or the name of the administrator"name" *.e.g.: net user aaaaaa *(where aaaaaa is the name).
• It will ask for the password.
• Type the password and there you are done.

Hot to Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons!!

How to Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons by following 4 steps
Here's how you can remove those shortcut arrows from your desktop icons in Windows XP.

• Start regedit.

• Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
• lnkfile
• Delete the IsShortcut registry value.
• You may need to restart Windows XP.
• Check out all your shortcut arrows have been removed.

Remove shortcut arrows from your desktop icons

If you want to remove the arrows in Windows XP from your desktop icons you’ll need to take the following steps.

• Go to start.
• Select Run
• And Type in regedit and click OK

Select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile

Delete the IsShortcut registry value

Select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile

Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

Select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ConferenceLink

Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

Select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DocShortCut

Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

Select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut

Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

Select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WSHFile

Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

• Now close down your registry editor and reboot your system and all your icons are arrow free.

Do note that in some cases deactivating the arrow for *.LNK files might lead to duplicate items in the Explorer Context menu.

How To Hide Files in JPEG Images

In this example we will hide a text message inside a picture. We have choose for this tutorial a text file named Secret.txt and a picture firefox.jpg.

1. Move your files you want to combine in a new folder, in our case C:\Hidden.



2. Add the file you want to hide into a new RAR archive (in our example named Secret.txt.rar).



3. WinRar created the archive in the folder where our files are located.



4. Open Command Prompt (Start -> Run..., type cmd and press Enter).

5. Go to the folder where your files are located, in this case C:\Hidden by using the cd command.



6. Now type copy /b firefox.jpg + secret.txt.rar helpero.jpg where firefox.jpg is the original picture, secret.txt.rar is the file that will be hidden, and helpero.jpg is the file which contains both.



7. If you open helpero.jpg you will see the firefox.jpg image.



8. Try opening the file with WinRar (select All files).





9. Now you can see the text file that is hidden in the picture.



A simple solution to make this more secure, is to use encryption on the RAR file when your create it.

Create nameless files and folders in windows

Just follow the following steps: 1.Select any file or folder.
2.Right click on it, press rename or simply press F2.
3.Press and hold the alt key. While holding the Alt key, type numbers 0160 from the numpad.
4.Press Enter and the nameless file or folder will be created. But what if you want to create another nameless file or folder in the same directory ?
For this you will have to rename the file with 2 spaces.
Just follow these steps below:
1.Select file, press F2.
2.Hold alt key and type 0160 from the numpad.
3.Release the alt key. Now without doing anything else, again hold altkey and press 0160.
4.Press enter and you will have second nameless file in the same directory.
5.Repeat step 3 to create as many nameless files or folders in the same directory.

How To Reinstall Windows Without Losing Anything

Here Is Another Possible Solution:easy way and tested:
1- Start WindowsXP
2- Go to the location of your source files
3- Run WINNT32 /unattend
For example, D:\I386\winnt32 /unattend ( copy & paste this command into the RUN box, then press ENTER ) Your computer will do the rest.
Or,
Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
Copy & paste > D:\I386\winnt32 /unattend
Press Enter.
If you have i386 on your drive, you can replace D: ( if D: is your cd drive ) with the location of it.
I've often need to do this to repair something that had gotten corrupted and didn't want to do a clean install.
D: is the driver letter where your windows XP Cd is
if D:\I386\winnt32 /unattend doesn't work then try : d:\winnt32 /unattend.

Make Your Own Icons In Windows XP !

Now even personalize your ICONS with Windows XP !

To make your own ICON :

1. Start>>All Programs>>Accessories
2. Click Paint
3. In toolbar select Image
4. Click Attributes

--------------------- Note : The size of a icon is 32 x 32 pixels ! ---------------------

5. Type 32 in both Height and Width and sure that Pixels is selected under Units
6. Click OK
7. Now add your photo or design .
8. File>>Save As
9. Type name.ico
10. Click Save

Enjoy your New ICON !!!

Hiding Files in pics

Hiding Files in pics
Hiding Files in pics(It`s a nice trick to save your data file from unauthorised access in a very simple manner)

# You will need the following.. Windows 2000 / xp
# WinRar

1. Gather your image and the files you wish to lodge into it. Here I have a ajeet.txt which I will hide inside my ashwarya.jpg.

2. Add the files(e.g ajeet.txt) you want to hide into a new RAR archive. (in the archieve name box type ajeet.txt and hit enter. Now ur file is in format ajeet.txt.rar)

3. Open Command Prompt and go to the folder where your files are located, e.g., ‘C:\ajeet’.

4. At command prompt type ‘copy /b ashwarya.jpg + ajeet.txt.rar ashabhi.jpg’ (without quotes).
(ashwarya.jpg is the picture I want to show, ajeet.txt.rar is the file to be hidden, and ashabhi.jpg is the file which contains both).

5. Now test the ashabhi.jpg by double clicking it, and verifying it still opens.

6. Now try opening that same ashabhi.jpg file from menu i.e right click on doc.jpg file you have created : openwith->WinRar archiever. It will show the original hidden file ajeet.txt.

Now ashabhi.jpg is a simple JPEG for others, but it contains a secret file ajeet.txt for you...