Top 10 Windows 7 Tips

 Have you ever wondered just how some people really get, what seems like, full use of their computer?  Sure we all played Minesweeper and wrote the occasional Word document when we first started out using computers.  Nowadays computers are a regular part of everyday life.  From playing games to communicating with friends and family half way around the globe. Computers are really useful tools, but, all tools can be used in different ways. Here’s a quick top 10 count down on a few tips and info that’ll make your life easier in Windows 7. We’ll count down from 10.

1. GOD MODE

To give you complete control over all the configurable options in Windows at a single press of a button just simply create a new folder anywhere and rename it to this: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} The folder you create will now have 270 items that are to do with configurable options in Windows 7. Interestingly it also works for Windows 8.1 as well.

2. “VIRTUAL” WI-FI

Windows 7 has a Microsoft Virtual Wi-Fi Miniport adapter located in your network connections. You can use this for making your laptop work as a Wi-Fi hotspot.

3. RELIABILITY MONITOR

If your computer is being a little strange or if it isn’t doing something it should, or for that matter, is doing something that it shouldn’t then search for ‘reliability’ in the Start menu and open the ‘View reliability history’. This will display a graph of the system’s stability index with the scale 1-10 for a certain period of days or weeks. This should allow you to figure out which program or Windows component is not working as it should.

4. ENHANCED CALCULATOR

Calculators are great for standard mathematics, but what if you need a to shake things up a little in the science dept? If you click the view menu, you will see that the calculator comes equipped with a number of powerful built-in features; unit conversions, mortgage spreadsheets, date calculations and fuel mileage, etc. Not so standard now, are you?

5. STEPS RECORDER

If you need remote assistance but the remote access is not working, just search and run “psr” from the Start menu. When you click on the “Start Record” option, the feature starts recording all the activities by an array of screenshots while adding automatic captions. When you end recording, all the recorded data is combined together and then saved as a web browser-compatible MHTML (MIME HTML) file which is kindly pre-zipped and ready to be attached to an email for you to send to your helper.

6. FILE SUPPORT IN WORDPAD

WordPad can now open ODT or DOCX files. The only downside is that it doesn’t work great with all formatted docs.

7. POWER EFFICIENCY REPORT

From the Start menu, navigate to CMD and type the following:

powercfg –energy

This will then scan your system for 60 seconds, then a file named energy-report.html will be created in \windows\system32 folder. Just copy it somewhere else before opening it, i.e. your desktop, and it will reveal which settings or devices are zapping power.

8. ERASE FREE DISK SPACE

When you delete something in Windows, the space they had taken up is labeled as “available for use.” But, the deleted files are still restorable if you use some software until they are overwritten with more data. To resolve this simply, open Command Prompt and type:

cipher /w:Z

Replace Z with the letter of the drive/partition you wish to erase. Be patient, it takes time.

9. FOLDERS ON YOUR TASKBAR

Programs can be pinned to the task bar and are useful there, right? This is how you can keep the folders. Just drag a folder to the empty space on the Taskbar and then release the button once the “Pin to Windows Explorer” pops up. Now every time you right click the Windows Explorer button, you will have access to the folder via Jump List.

10. HOTKEY WINDOWS BETWEEN MONITORS

To do this, just hold onto the Windows key and press left or right arrow and your active window will then be anchored in that direction. This happens on every monitor that you have and if you use Windows + Shift +Left/Right Arrow key, the active window will jump to the second monitor.

So there you have it, a few tips to keep you occupied for a while. Enjoy.