What Will Microsoft Change in Windows 8′s Interface?

Windows 8′s user interface will still include a very smooth layout, but won’t include as much eye candy as Windows 7 did. The drop shadow that’s been around since XP will disappear, and so will the semi-transparent title bar as seen in the Aero interface. Only the taskbar will remain sort of transparent. To preserve program compatibility, window content remain with a light chrome background. Microsoft claims that this background will help keep attention away from the surrounding UI and focus everything on the content of all windows. It was their aim with Aero in the first place.

The new Windows 8 interface will still be smooth and eye candy-ish, but windows will no longer have rounded corners. Instead, the new operating system will have squared corners on all of its dialogs and windows.

According to Microsoft, you won’t get much of a shock when using the new interface. If it’s anything like the consumer preview showed, then we can attest to this. The interface isn’t much different, except for the fact that you won’t be barraged with visual effects. The harmony between the pleasant visual style of Windows 8′s desktop environment and the efficiency of its cleanliness is sufficient to make the transition smoother than one would otherwise expect when being told that Microsoft dumped Aero.

The interesting thing about this is that the consumer preview still calls the UI “Aero.” However, this is subject to change as future builds might do away with the nomenclature.

Why is Windows 8′s UI Different?

Today is a world in which people are moving away from desktop computers and are starting to use more low-power devices like netbooks, tablets, and smartphones. Because of this new age, Microsoft has chosen to do away with some of the demanding parts of interfaces seen in previous versions of its operating system. One of the reasons Windows 8 is changing has to do with the overwhelming amount of visual effects that would otherwise have slowed down these devices. ARM tablets don’t exactly have very powerful processors designed to run Windows 7′s heavy interface. Still, there’s another reason why the interface has changed…

Windows 8′s Metro interface needed something to accompany it. In order for Metro not to come off as too much of a shock, Windows 8′s desktop environment makes a slight tendency towards showing windows as squares, which resemble the tiles you see inside of the “Start” screen. Other elements of the desktop interface are said to include ways to “unify” the desktop and Metro experience as much as possible, even if the desktop can’t really become so touch friendly.

Ideas? Comments?

We’d love to hear what you have to say about the new desktop interface, especially discussions about how the desktop could be improved. Does this look better than Aero? Is anyone excited about this? Let’s hear it!

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WinX Blu-ray Decrypter is developed by Digiarty and provides a great solution to decrypt and copy your Blu-ray disc for personal backup.

Like all Digiarty’s software, the Blu-ray Decryter is easy to use. Simply run the application, load your Blu-ray disc, select the destination and click Run. Note that for this software to work, you need to have a Blu-ray ROM to read the Blu-ray disc.

Some features of the Blu-ray Decrypter include:

• Decrypt and clone Blu-ray to hard drive with original video audio quality.
• Support Title Mode copy with selected title and Full Disc backup with entire movie content.
• Decrypt Blu-ray Disc to Blu-ray folder or M2TS video. Transform 3D Blu-ray to 2D video.
• Make Blu-ray copy within 25 minutes or so. Remove all known Blu-ray copy protections.

Here’s what you need to do to obtain the free copy:

1. Go to http://www.winxdvd.com/giveaway/ and click the “Get License” button.

2. From the popup window, there is a link for you to download the software and the license key.

3. Install the application and enter the license key on the first run.

That’s it.

Note:
1. This giveaway ends on 25th May 2012

2. The software need to be activated (with the license key) before 27th May 2012.

Download and enjoy!

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• How To Schedule Backup And Synchronization Tasks In Windows

Q: How do I change the home page that Google Chrome opens up when I summon a new tab?

A: If you’re not infected by malware, this is rather easy. Click the wrench icon on the top right hand corner when in Google Chrome. Click “Settings” and select what you want on the “On startup” section, like so:

Close the tab and start a new one. You should see what you’ve chosen. If you aren’t getting what you want, you are probably infected by malware that keeps on hijacks your browser to show another page on every new tab. For this, you’ll have to get an anti-virus solution and scan your computer, eliminating any threats you find.

Q: My installation of Windows 7 is missing Windows Media Center. How can I correct this?

A: You probably have installed Windows 7 N or Windows 7 KN. Both of these are versions of Windows 7 that don’t include Windows Media Center or Internet Explorer, allowing you to choose what to install. If you would like to have this product on your computer, you’ll have to download it from Microsoft. Follow this link to get the Microsoft Media Feature Pack for Windows 7.

Oh, and one more thing: If you’re confused about which one of the two packages to install, get the “x64″ version if you have a 64-bit version of Windows and the “x86″ version for 32-bit. To find out what bit rate you installed Windows at, press “Win+Pause/Break” on your keyboard. Under “System,” you’ll see the bit rate next to “System type.” It will either tell you “64-bit operating system” or “32-bit operating system,” like so:

Q: My thumbnails are not showing in Explorer. The only way to see an image preview is to actually open the image. How do I enable the thumbnails?

A: If you’re not seeing your thumbnails, you’ll have to go into folder options to rectify the issue. To do this, click the “Organize” button on the top left corner of Windows Explorer and click “Folder and search options.” Click the “View” tab and make sure the checkbox next to “Always show icons, never thumbnails” is cleared, like so:

Once you do that, refresh the folder. Its icons should show up. If they don’t, try restarting your computer. If you continue to have problems, come back in the comments section and we’ll help you out.

Q: Invoices and Estimates Pro is not compatible with Windows 7. What can I use to send PDF invoices like I did with this program?

A: Based on our research, it seems like your program is made to work only with 32-bit versions of Windows 7. It also seems like many people are complaining about how it works even with the 32-bit version. A good number of people use FreshBooks for sending invoices, and you probably would benefit from their platform, as it automatically reminds recipients of payments due. Try it out. There are many online solutions for this that don’t require you to run a certain operating system. You can use Invoice Machine or FreeAgent, as well. Truthfully, these solutions are always better than offline programs which go obsolete after a while. Tell us if you want to find an offline application in the comments section and we’ll recommend a few.

Q: How can I remove icons of games that don’t exist anymore from the “Games” menu?

A: When you enter the Games menu in Windows 7, it sometimes will show you shortcuts to games that aren’t present in your system anymore. While this is an annoying phenomenon, Windows allows you to hide these dead shortcuts by right-clicking the game in question and clicking “Hide this game.” If you don’t find this option or have any further problems related to this question, please leave a comment below.

Q: I get the following warning when trying to create a partition on one of my drives where there is unallocated space: The operation you selected will convert the selected basic disk(s) to dynamic disk(s). How do I stop this error?

A: The most likely problem you’re facing is Windows’ 4-partition limit. This includes the “System Reserved” partition. So, this gives you three possible partitions to create. If you already have three, you’ll likely get an error to the tune of converting a basic disk to a dynamic disk. Do not attempt to circumvent the limit, as you might end up damaging your system or hard disk. Instead, simply extend the current partitions you have to cover the unallocated space.

Unfortunately, Microsoft was not very clear about this four-partition limit because the operating system fails to warn you about it when you try creating a fifth. The error it gives instead kind of throws off a lot of people. So, keep in mind: More than four partitions isn’t possible on a Windows 7 system.

Got any questions or ideas?

Here’s your moment to shine! The majority of questions we get in our inbox show up in here, and we’re ready to crunch more of them. If you want to submit a question, kindly follow the advice in the introduction of this article and click “Ask Our Experts Now!” on the right side of any page of this site. Please leave a comment if you have any problems following any steps explained in answers shown here. We’re listening to you and ready to answer anything! Have a nice day!

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WinDataReflector is a free backup and synchronization solution which lets the users create backup and sync jobs and execute them with a click when needed. You can also schedule automatic backup and synchronization tasks. WinDataReflector also supports two way synchronization which means that the source and destination will always be kept identical. All the changes to source will be propagated to the destination and vise versa.

Although WinDataReflector is very easy to use, one needs to keep a close eye on each step of the backup and synchronization because some steps can be confusing. I will try to guide you in a step by step way on how to use WinDataReflector. The steps below are for backing up a folder and then enabling automatic scheduling. The synchronization, two way sync and restore operations are pretty similar and will be very easy once you go through the following steps.

When you start WinDataReflector for the first time, you will notice that it uses tabbed windows in order to create each backup and sync job. There are four main buttons in the toolbar.

1. Synchronization – create a new synchronization job
2. Backup – create a new backup job
3. Schedule – Create and manage schedules of all created backup and sync jobs
4. Options – program preferences whether you want to start WinDataReflector with Windows Startup and show it in system tray.

Since we are interested in backing up a folder, we need to click on the Backup button. This will open up a new window where we have to input the name of the backup (only to be used in WinDataReflector) and the type of the backup (normal or compressed to a ZIP file). The type of the backup doesn’t seem to be functional but we can configure this later in backup settings. So just leave this to Normal and press the OK button.

You will see a new tab in the main WinDataReflector window. Notice that the title of the tab did not change to the task name.

Now we have two fields labeled L and R. L field will contain the path of the source folder which we want to backup and R field will contain the destination folder where the backup has to be saved. You can select multiple folders in either fields. This means that you will be able to create multiple backups in multiple destinations. Just make sure that you click on the Add button after browsing and selecting the source or destination folder.

After filling in the L and R fields, click on the pencil icon next to the R field which will open up settings for the backup job.

In the settings window, you can configure different settings specific to the backup task. Here you can check the checkbox “Compress to ZIP file” which will create a single destination file in ZIP format. You can also copy the NTFS permissions along with the files to be backed up.

If you click on the Time menu from the left hand pane, you will be able to configure whether you want to run this backup task manually or automate the process by scheduling the backup. Please note that WinDataReflector needs to be running in order for this automation process to work correctly. You will need to start WinDataReflector with Windows Startup under options.

Clicking on the Process button will make the backup task ready to be executed. After clicking on the Process button, you will need to click on the Backup button in order to actually run the backup job.

The synchronization and restore jobs are created very similar to the backup job with some changes in the settings window.

You can create as many backup and synchronization jobs as you like and then schedule them as per your needs. I have been using WinDataReflector and the only problem I have had was the frequent crashes of the software. Otherwise, it does a good job of seamless automation of backup and sync job and make our lives easier.

What are your thoughts about WinDataReflector? Which backup and sync software do you use for backing up your data?

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Microsoft Responds to The Annoying Experience

Well, Microsoft just came up with a new concept, known as “Microsoft Signature,” which is a service that gives you “out of the box” personal computers with absolutely no extra software installed. The company now offers both a line of Microsoft Signature certified computers and a service to certify computers that you have already purchased. It seems like the company is serious about pushing forth a policy of cleanliness and respect for the people who purchase computers. Imagine a world where you buy a computer with Windows installed and you’re greeted with an interface that’s free of any garbage.

What Does Microsoft Signature Do?

Besides eliminating the initial bloatware/junkware, Microsoft claims that it optimizes PCs that it sells to you. Details are not so clear on how the company does this, but they do admit that they install some of their own hardware that runs optimally on the operating system they created. The software includes Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows Live Essentials, Zune Software, and Internet Explorer with Bing as the default search engine.

In addition, Microsoft also offers a service for certifying your computer with Microsoft Signature. The Signature certification will mean that Microsoft actually had someone look at your computer, take apart its software, uninstall the unnecessary stuff you don’t need, and tweaked it to improve its performance.

How Does Microsoft Tweak The Computer?

I can only assume and speculate because, as previously mentioned, Microsoft didn’t provide many details about the situation and what they do to your computer to make it run better. The demo video shows you some insight:

According to this video, I could only assume that Microsoft makes tweaks on its software and operating system from within your computer to ensure that it’s up to spec, allowing you to have a better experience running Windows on your computer. Perhaps settings like visual effects and other things that affect performance would be changed according to how much physical memory, video memory, and CPU power you have. Coupled with the elimination of elements that would otherwise occupy your computer’s resources, this is a solution that will make your computer squeaky clean.

How Much Does Microsoft Signature Cost?

If you’re buying a computer from the Microsoft Store with Signature certification, the price will vary according to the computer’s own specifications. Microsoft doesn’t make the computers. The company simply tweaks and packages them. The computers come from their respective manufacturers, meaning that the price could be as low as a couple of hundred dollars or as high as a couple grand, just like with any other computer purchase.

If you already have a computer that you want to certify with Microsoft, their services for tweaking your computer cost $99. This might be a drawback, especially considering that many IT pros and enthusiasts can tweak their computers well enough without having to pay this fee. However, the company does have to cover the expense of labor in modifying your computer. They are not responsible for what was there in the first place, and this is their way of offering a hand. By the way, this is how a computer’s packaging looks like with MS Signature:

Should I Get Microsoft Signature?

If you’re the kind of person who has difficulty understanding online tutorials and cannot easily reach the settings necessary to tweak your computer, or you want Microsoft to have a hand at optimizing your computer’s speed, you should get this service. Otherwise, there’s no real viable reason to use a service that offers something you can just do yourself.

However, if you have multiple computers, this might actually save you some time. If you have a very fast hand at tweaking a computer, though, you’d lose more money than what you’d make up for in time you’d spend to perform the task. This is better suited for people who are new to computers and want to squeeze every bit of juice out of them. This isn’t the case with IT professionals who know their way around the registry.

The conclusion is that there are some people who could use Microsoft Signature and others who really don’t need it. Just do as you see fit.

If you want to learn how to tweak your Windows computer and enhance your experience with things Microsoft probably won’t add to your computer, we do provide tons of tutorials, tweaks, tips and tricks for Windows, for free.

Thoughts?

I’d really be intrigued to hear people’s thoughts on Signature, particularly opinions of other IT professionals and experts who work with Windows on a daily basis. Let’s start a dialogue! Leave a comment below and we can discuss Microsoft Signature.

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What Is Partitioning?

Partitioning is the practice of dividing your drive into multiple segments, much like sections of a library. They belong to the same library, but different types of books are stored in each section. You have one section for fiction, one section for science, and another for history, as well as others for different subjects. Partitioning a hard disk creates different areas in which you can store data, much like a directory.

The main difference, and main advantage, is that you can access each partition as an individual hard disk on your computer. When you click “Computer” from the Start menu in Windows 7, you’ll see each partition with its own drive letter.

Why Partition?

Your hard drive is simply a collection of plates that store data by means of magnetic read/write heads that run around the disk. Look at the image below for an example:

The background of the image is a piece of the surface of the drive platter, on which all your data is stored. It’s difficult to imagine how, in that space, there are tens of thousands – if not millions – of bits of data stored. If you can imagine that, you can realize just how fragile the drive itself is, and how it can easily be corrupt. Are you willing to take such a risk?

If you’re willing to risk data loss because you believe your hard drive is durable, you probably don’t know how a hard drive works, or believe that the data you’re protecting isn’t worth the resources you would put into new storage.

First of all, hard drives aren’t as durable as you may believe. Read/write heads on hard drives are so close to their platters (less than the thickness of a hair on your head) that you’d be amazed at how it manages not to ever touch the surface. Actually, there’s an ultra-thin lubricant (much like teflon) on every platter, and read/write heads tend to skid off when they do that. Sometimes, though, the read/write head touches the drive platter at such an angle in which the lubricant really won’t have much of an effect and will scratch the drive.

Then there’s another problem. Did you know that ambient air cannot enter a hard drive? Even the smallest speck of dust will likely corrupt data on your drive and scratch the platter so one entire sector of it will turn bad and refuse to run. This kind of thing happens every day to unsuspecting users of any device that has a hard disk. You see, the hard disk does allow for a small amount of air to enter it, so it can equalize with the atmospheric pressure. The drive has a filter around it to ensure that no particles get trapped inside. After a while, this filter isn’t going to be as efficient as it used to be.

To get an idea of what kind of damage could happen to your disk, let’s have a look at this image:

Take note that the entire surface has to be homogeneous. That stripe on the surface is a scratch that was made in a split second, rendering a chunk of the drive unreadable. With a partition closer to the center of the drive, some of the data is still recoverable. Partitions like that sit at the “end” of the drive.

Windows functions like this: It treats each partition as its own volume of data.

Let’s say you have a disk with two partitions and the system partition is no longer accessible. If you install the hard drive on another computer with Windows, it will read the unaffected partition perfectly, allowing you to take some, if not all, of that data out. If you had all of your disk on one partition, you’ve pretty much arrived at a dead end.

Aren’t You Supposed to Plan a Partition Scheme Before Installing Windows 7?

You’re in luck! Windows Vista and 7 both have the ability to create partitions on the fly while still maintaining drive integrity. For this, you should always back up your drive into another one before you start. You never know if you’d end up losing data that’s valuable to you. Install a drive cloning utility and back up the drive if you want to. If you don’t have that kind of money, you won’t have to worry. Partitioning usually doesn’t result in data loss.

In Windows Vista and 7, you can shrink a partition to make room for another one. Go ahead and check it out in the disk management utility. Type “Disk Management” in your Start menu’s search box and you’ll find it. When you right-click a partition, click “Shrink Volume.”

Another Useful Tool In Case of a Drive Apocalypse

Ever heard of Symform? It’s a Cloud-based storage platform that safely puts your data into several redundant arrays spread across the world by people like you! You can get up to 200 GB of storage for free, as long as you contribute that much of your drive space to the service. The costs of getting a new 200 GB drive for this kind of thing is much less than the price you’d pay for traditional Cloud storage. They use a RAID-96 array to ensure that your files are securely stored within another contributor’s computer. Give it a shot!

You get 10 GB of storage, initially, without any contribution. As long as you contribute 20 GB or more, you’re set for a higher amount of data storage. This is more than enough to store all your important personal files. No one will have a peek at them, since only small encrypted fragments of each file are placed in one computer at any given time.

Got Any Suggestions?

Help us add to this by submitting your own ideas and experiences in the comments section below!

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Q: Windows is not seeing my DVD drive when I plug it in. I run Vista 32-bit on a notebook. How can I get it to detect this drive?

A: When Windows isn’t detecting a drive, it’s possible that the drive requires some drivers from the manufacturer in order to function. Have you tried another spare DVD drive to see if Windows detects that one? Try opening your device manager (Start -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager) and finding the drive within it. If you don’t find it, there’s something wrong with the connection. It should show up even if Windows didn’t find drivers for it.

If you see the drive, right-click it and click “Scan for hardware changes,” like so:

If this doesn’t work, try uninstalling the current driver and attempt to scan for changes again. You know it worked when you see a message on the right-hand side of your taskbar saying “Device driver software installed successfully.”

Q: What Can I Use to Restore My System to a Previous State?

A: If you haven’t made any image of your system to restore to, you won’t be able to restore your system to a previous state using any software offered on the market. All system restoration software requires that you create a restoration image using their software. Some of them use similar restore images.

I highly suggest, for future reference, that you use Microsoft System Restore, offered in Windows XP and later. You can find this utility by accessing your Start menu, clicking “All Programs,” clicking “Accessories,” clicking “System Tools,” and clicking “System Restore.” Within this program, you can create system restore points and recover from them. Create a restore point every time you install a new application so that you can restore to any point prior to the application installation. These are best practices for system restoration in any version of Windows from XP and beyond. Have a look:

Q: How can I install Windows XP through a flash drive?

A: First of all, you need a flash drive large enough to hold all the installation files. You also need a flash drive that is bootable. It’s safe to assume you’re trying to install XP on a netbook. You will need a desktop PC or laptop with CD/DVD drive to create the bootable flash drive. Here are some simple steps for bootable USB Nirvana:

• Download and install “A Bootable USB” from this link.
• Click “Check USB” and “Format USB” while the USB drive is connected to your computer.
• Insert the Windows XP installation CD into the computer’s CD/DVD drive. Click “Check DVD” and “Start DVD.” This will begin the process of writing the DVD onto the USB drive and making the flash drive bootable.

All your problems will be solved by this little utility:

Q: My pictures are showing up as icons instead of showing me thumbnails. How can I fix this? I’m running Windows 7 64-bit.

A: Someone must have switched your folder options to show the icons representing the file type instead of preview thumbnails. To fix this, click “Organize” on the upper left-hand corner of the folder’s container, like this:

Once you see the menu, select “Folder and Search Options.” Click the “View” tab and then clear the checkbox next to “Always show icons, never thumbnails.” This should solve your problem fair and square.

Q: I installed Windows XP on my computer that already had Windows 7 in it. Now, the computer only starts with Windows XP, although I’m certain that both operating systems are intact. How can I create a boot menu for both these systems?

A: If you’re not familiar with using MSConfig and other utilities to properly detect both operating systems and fix the boot loader manually, you can always use EasyBCD, a program that lets you completely modify the boot loader as you wish without having to go through all the painful steps you normally would go through. You can download EasyBCD from here. Take note that you must scroll down to the bottom of the page and choose the non-commercial license (unless, of course, you’re downloading it for corporate use). This way, the license will be free. Don’t get scared by the “Buy Now” button near the top of the page.

Q: I get an error saying: The Windows Installer service is unavailable. Another application may be running setup. Finish and installations in progress, or restart your computer, and then re-run setup. How do I stop this?

A: Attempt to stop the Windows Installer service and start it again. Click the “Start” menu and type “services.msc” on the bottom, then press “Enter.” This will take you to the “Services” window. Just scroll down to “Windows Installer,” right-click it, and stop the service. Start the service using the same method. Once the service is started, it should no longer give you trouble.

If you continue having problems, your computer might be attempting to install updates on your computer. Install the updates, shut down, and try installing an application again. This often is the case.

Q: I run Windows on a multiple monitor setup. Whenever I press “Print Screen” on my keyboard, I want to get an image only of the currently selected monitor. How can I do this without having to edit the second monitor out of paint?

A: Try “Alt+LShift+PrtSc/Print Screen.” This combination gets the display input from the currently active monitor. If that key somehow isn’t working here, come back and we’ll talk in the comments section.

Got Your Own Question?

As we’ve mentioned above, you can submit your own query to us using the “Ask Our Experts Now” button at the right sidebar of any page of this site. If you would like to discuss a question already mentioned here, please use the comments section instead of making another inquiry. Have a Win-tastic day!

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Crusper lets a user perform the following actions on screen corners:

• Open a program
• Open a file or folder
• Go to Desktop
• Type a phrase
• Open a website
• Restart computer
• Shutdown computer
• Log-off
• Disable computer restart/shutdown/log-off

When Crusper is started for the first time, it will ask you for calibration. This calibration process determines the four corners of the screen. You will need to move your mouse cursor to each corner of the screen and and click there so that Crusper saves that exact position for taking actions in the future. After the calibration process, you will be taken to the main software window.

The next step is to create a new shortcut. Creating a new shortcut means assigning a specific task to each corner of the screen. Clicking on “Create a new shortcut” will take you to the options window that I have already explained above. Just pick a task and the respective action will take place automatically. For example, if I selected “Open a Program”, the Windows browser will automatically open from where you can select your desired program. Press OK when done.

The next window will ask you about which corner you want to assign the task to. You can select any corner or combination of corners but make sure that the actual shortcut does not overlap another shortcut.

You can see and delete all the shortcuts you have created in Crusper by clicking on “Edit current shortcuts” button. Unfortunately you can not edit the current shortcuts. You have to delete them and create again in order to change the shortcut combination. You can also check the “Automatic click” checkbox in order to perform the task by just moving the mouse without clicking. You will need to use your middle button of the mouse to complete the task.

These shortcuts only work when Crusper is running in Windows. You can enable Crusper to automatically load with Windows startup under settings. You can also change the shortcut combination renew delay which is 2 seconds by default. This means that you will need to work out your shortcut combination before 2 seconds in order to successfully do the task which has been assigned to that particular combination.

Although this program has not been updated for a while but it does its task very well and works in almost all versions of Windows including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download Crusper

For what tasks will you be using this software? Please share your thoughts in comments below.

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1. Tired of Typing In Your Password? Have Windows Do It Automatically!

For those of you living alone, or those of you who share a computer with people who you wouldn’t mind poking around, you don’t necessarily have to keep typing your password at Windows’ logon screen. Versions of Windows as early as XP have been supporting automatic logins for quite some time although not many actually know about this.

Access the Start menu, type “netplwiz” and press “Enter.” If this isn’t functioning, type “control userpasswords2“. This will take you to the same place. Once in the user accounts window, clear the checkbox labeled “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.” You should find it here:

Click “OK” when finished and you’ll never have to type in a password again.

2. Lock/Shutdown/Hibernate/Sleep/Standby on a Simple Shortcut

If you prefer using a shortcut to turn off the computer, there are some neat tricks you can use to create a shortcut for any of the “shutdown menu” options that you normally find on your Start menu. This is especially useful if you’re the kind of person that switches to the desktop before turning off the computer, making it easier to shut it down without having to waste time fumbling after the options in your Start menu.

Right-click any area on your desktop and go to “New -> Shortcut.” Type “shutdown.exe -s -t 00” in the field provided and click “Next.” Name your shortcut and continue the wizard until you feel happy with what you’ve done.

Use these shortcut locations to perform other actions:

• Restart = shutdown.exe -r -t 00
• Lock computer = Rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation
• Hibernate = rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll,SetSuspendState
• Sleep = rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0

Once you’ve set your shortcuts, you can double-click them from the desktop or move them to a more appropriate location. One neat trick is to pin these to the taskbar for easier access, even when you’re not at your desktop.

3. Browse Your Computer From The Taskbar

Wouldn’t it be cool to browse your computer the same way you go through your programs list in the Start menu? Personally, I wouldn’t like the clutter, but some people really like the hierarchical menus. This fix will put the “Computer” directory that you normally access by clicking “Computer” on your Start menu in the taskbar instead of Windows Explorer. Let’s walk through the process.

Right-click your taskbar and hover the mouse over “Toolbars.” Select “New Toolbar.” Select your desktop and click “Computer” once. Don’t double-click it. Click the “Select folder” button at the bottom of the browsing window and you’ll see “Computer” appear at your taskbar near the icons on the right-hand side, like this:

Once you click the arrows to the right of “Computer,” you’ll see a repository of all directories in your drives.

4. Take Ownership of Files & Folders

Files in Windows 7 have a certain level of hierarchy that could annoy most people attempting to make modifications to any part of the file system. For this, you can easily add a “Take Ownership” option to the context menu that pops up when you right-click a file or folder on your computer. Instead of going through the tons of steps required to add this context menu, we found a file that does this for you! This is what “.reg” files are good for. Download this registry hack and run it. To uninstall the context menu, there’s another “.reg” file placed within the archive for you.

5. Add “Copy to Folder” or “Move to Folder” to Your Context Menu

Until now, the only two ways you can move or copy your files to another folder were:

1. Opening both folders and dragging the file from the source to the destination, or
2. Opening both folders and pressing “Ctrl+C” on the source and pressing “Ctrl+V” on the destination, using “Ctrl+X” in place of “Ctrl+C” to move a file.

This can get quite annoying if you have to copy something quickly. Adding “Copy to” or “Move to” to your context menu when right-clicking a file will help you eliminate the need to open both of the folders. You’ll only need to open the source folder. Download this registry hack to make it happen.

6. Get Rid of The Caps Lock Key

We all know that key that helps some people shout in comments sections on YouTube and post awkward questions on forums. If you’re not the type that often uses the Caps Lock key, you’d probably be more annoyed by its existence than its absence.

Let’s get rid of it with this downloadable registry hack. The files contained in the archive modify your registry to perform different functions. You can tell which one you want by reading the title of each file. Have fun!

7. Disable Automatic Update Installation on Shutdown

Oh, this one’s a huge pet peeve among my colleagues, and I’m sure that some of you hate having to stay awake during the night because you shut down your computer only to realize you need to turn it back on. Instead of waiting 10 seconds for the computer to shut down, you have to wait what seems like the entire night for the computer to finish installing updates before you can power up again. Your computer, in light terms, is in “update limbo.” So, how do we take it out of this zombie-like state?

Open up your registry editor by typing “regedit” in the search bar within your Start menu and pressing “Enter.” Once in, navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

If any of these keys don’t exist, just create new ones with the names shown here.

Add “NoAUAsDefaultShutdownOption” to the right-hand side of the window as a “DWORD” value. If the value exists, you don’t have to do this. Modify the value to “1″ and restart your computer. The computer will no longer hold you down while shutting down.

Questions? Thoughts?

Let us know what you think about these awesome tweaks in the comments section below! We’d also like to hear you if you’re stuck somewhere. You’ll get an answer very quickly.

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1. Enable AHCI

The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a paramount feature for ensuring that Windows will support all of the features that come with running an SSD on your computer, especially the TRIM feature, which allows Windows to help the SSD perform its routine garbage collection. The term “garbage collection” is used to describe the phenomenon that occurs when a drive gets rid of information that is no longer considered to be in use.

To enable AHCI, you’ll have to enter the BIOS of your computer and enable it somewhere within its settings. I can’t tell you exactly where the setting is, as each BIOS functions differently. You’ll have to do a bit of hunting. Chances are that newer computers will have this enabled by default. It’s most recommended that you enable this feature before installing the operating system, although you might be able to get away with enabling it after Windows has already been installed.

2. Enable TRIM

We’ve talked about TRIM enough in the previous section. You could see how such a feature would benefit your computer’s speed greatly, so let’s get to enabling it!

Open up your command prompt and enter the following: 

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0

That’s all you have to do! Onto the next step!

3. Disable System Restore

This isn’t an obligation. But, just so you know, your drive doesn’t exactly have infinite space. System restore undermines both the speed and space of your SSD. Why don’t you just get rid of it?

Click your Start menu, right-click “Computer,” and click “Properties.” Click “System Protection” on the upper left-hand corner:

Once in the window, click “Configure,” like so:

Once in the configuration dialog, click “Turn off system protection.” Click “OK” and you’re all set!

4. Disable Indexing

A good part of your SSD speed is consumed in indexing files for Windows search. This could be useful if you store everything you have on your SSD, but you might be annoyed by it if you experience slow-downs due to the periodic indexing process that occurs every time you add new data to the drive. You’re better off without it in an SSD, because the speed boost from the indexing process is superfluous in such environments.

Click your Start menu and click “Computer.” Right-click your SSD and click “Properties.” De-select the box labeled “Allow files to have contents indexed in addition to file properties” and click “OK.” Once you do this, the operating system will apply this to all the files and folders on the drive. If you see a dialog telling you that it couldn’t remove a file from the index, click “Ignore All.” That will streamline the process and ignore any errors.

5. Disable Scheduled Defragmentation

Because the SSD is a solid media with no moving parts, you often don’t see a performance drop due to file fragmentation. Therefore, there’s no need to actually defragment the drive as frequently as you would defragment an HDD, per se. That’s why we’re about to disable this!

Access your Start menu, click “Accessories,” click “System Tools,” and then click “Disk Defragmenter.” Click “Configure schedule,” like so:

Once in the schedule configuration window, uncheck the box labeled “Run on a schedule.” Click “OK,” and you won’t have to worry about scheduled defragmentations again.

6. Remove The Page File

The page file in Windows refers to a file on a disk reserved for the storage of application components that would otherwise fit into physical memory. It’s like a form of RAM on your hard drive. Disabling the page file on a solid state drive would greatly increase the focus it would have on running system processes. Don’t do this if you run your computer solely on one SSD. If you paired an SSD with an HDD, then you can easily configure the HDD to handle the page file. The most ideal setup, though, is one SSD to run the page file, another SSD to run Windows, and an HDD for storage.

The process of configuring the page file differs based on your setup, so we’re only going to teach you how to reach the configuration window.

Right-click “Computer” in the Start menu and click “Properties.” Click “Advanced system settings” on the top left-hand side of the window and access the “Advanced” tab. Click “Settings” under “Performance.” You should now be at a window like this:

Click the “Advanced” tab and click “Change.” The rest of the configuration process should be easy enough!

7. Disable Hibernation

Windows occupies at least 2 GB for the hibernation state image. If you want to keep it, that’s fine by me, but you’re not getting all the juice you can out of your drive. Type “powercfg -h off” in your command line to disable it. You’ll be thankful for those two extra gigabytes when you have an intense game to install on it!

8. Disable Prefetch and Superfetch

Windows sometimes places information in your physical memory and virtual memory belonging to programs that you don’t currently use, but use very often. This is known as “Prefetch” and “Superfetch.” If you are stuck with having to cope with virtual memory on your SSD, you’re better off just doing away with these two features. You can find them on your registry editor under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

as two values: EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfetch. Set both values to zero and be done with it!

9. Configure Write Caching

On many SSDs, user level write caching can have a detrimental effect on the drive. To figure this out, you’ll have to disable the option in Windows and see how the drive performs afterwards. If your drive performs worse, enable it again.

To reach the configuration window, right-click “Computer” on the Start menu and click “Properties.” Click “Device manager,” expand “Disk Drives,” right-click your SSD, and click “Properties.” Select the “Policies” tab. In this tab, you’ll see an option labeled “Enable write caching on the device.”

Benchmark your SSD with and without the option and compare results.

10. Disable Services for Windows Search and Superfetch

Even with the above-mentioned registry tweak and index removal, your computer might continue slowing your hard drive with their respective services. Press “Win+R” on your keyboard, type “services.msc,” and press “Enter.” Find both services mentioned in the title of this section and disable them.

11. Disable ClearPageFileAtShutdown and LargeSystemCache

Windows is quick to implement things that are no longer necessary. An SSD operates on flash memory, making it possible to easily overwrite things on the disk. Therefore, the page file doesn’t need to be erased while the computer’s shutting down. This will make the Windows shutdown process much faster. LargeSystemCache, on the other hand, exists primarily in Server versions of Windows, and tells the computer whether to use a large cache for pages on the drive.

Both these options are found in your registry editor under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management

Set them to 0.

12. Set the “High Performance” Power Option

This should be a no-brainer. When your SSD powers on and off all the time, you’ll notice a slight lag whenever you use your computer after you’ve been idle for a while.

To switch your power options, access your control panel, click “System and Security,” and then click “Power Options.” Select “High Performance” from the list. You might need to click “Show additional plans” to find it.

The Finale

And that’s how you reach SSD Nirvana! If you have any questions, shoot them at us in the comments section, and we’ll get to you as soon as we can!

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Although there are several free software available which can securely wipe out the hard drive, xShredder is one open source app we will be using.

If you are running xShredder on Windows Vista or Windows 7, you will need to run it with administrative privileges. Otherwise it will give an error.

To run xShredder with administrative privileges, just right click on xShredder shortcut on Desktop and select “Run as administrator”.

The first thing you will notice while running xShredder for the first time is that it is in Dutch language by default. You can change the language by going to “Options -> Language (Optionen -> Language, Sprache)”.

There are four tabs on the main interface of xShredder.

1. Saved erase jobs
2. Filemanager
3. Disk Shredder
4. Tools

Saved erase jobs contains all the jobs that you have created. You can run xShredder wizard in order to create a new job or just press “Ctrl + N” to create a new job directly. The steps to securely erase a file using xShredder are a little complex and confusing. So I am giving a step by step process of erasing one file securely. You can apply the same method to securely delete multiple files, folders or even drives.

1. Download xShredder, install it and run with administrative privileges.
2. Create a new erase job by pressing “Ctrl + N” in the Saved erase jobs tab.



3. A new window will appear with two tabs – Filemanager and Deletion request. First go to “Shredder -> Options” in the menu and select the deletion method. There are several deletion methods supported by xShredder including simple method which overwrites data only one time to Peter Gutmann method which overwrites data 35 times (obviously taking more time).



4. Under Filemanager, select the file or folder you want to securely delete. Right click the file and select Paste in deletion request -> Paste selected object (s). If you want to select all the files, select “Insert all files and folders”. Please note that if you want to browse different drives, just press F5 and you will a list of all your drives in the computer.



5. Choose all the files that you want to securely delete and keep repeating step no. 3.
6. After you have selected all the files, open the second tab “Deletion request” and press “Ctrl + S” to save the deletion request that you have just created.
7. Now close the deletion request window and go to the main xShredder window. You will see that the newly created deletion request has been added to Saved erase jobs tab. You can start the erase job by right clicking and selecting “Start erase job” or simply pressing “Ctrl + E”. After confirmation, the erase job will start and will take some time depending upon the deletion method and the size of files to be deleted.

Although xShredder is a complex program but once you start using it, you’ll start loving it. The greatest feature of xShredder is the number of deletion methods that it supports. What are your thoughts about this free software?

You may also consider reading how to delete files securely in Ubuntu Linux and deleting files on a Mac.

Image credit: Businessman by Big Stock Photo.

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Q: My Hotmail account has been blocked. How can I solve this problem?

A: Locks often happen to accounts that have been detected as taking part in activity involving spam or fraud. If you have done neither, it’s likely that your account has been compromised and the person using your account has sent out emails to spam others. In rare cases, some email that you have sent has been interpreted or reported as spam. Under any circumstance, Microsoft allows you to remove this block by obtaining a code that will authenticate your cellphone.

To get such a code, click “Add a Phone” in your Hotmail interface when you log in.

Once you enter your phone number, the interface will send you an SMS with a code. You will have 15 minutes to type in the code and authenticate your phone. If those 15 minutes pass, request a new code and Hotmail will send one right away.

Another reason your account could be blocked might involve an issue on Microsoft’s end. If that happens, you just have to wait until they resolve it. Wait about two or three days. If you’re in a hurry, you can contact them about this.

Q: I tried booting Puppy Linux from a USB drive on a computer that already has Windows. How come this doesn’t work? I have the ISO file on the USB drive.

A: The way the question is phrased is how we interpreted what you sent to our inbox. In order to enjoy the benefits of booting from a USB drive, the drive has to be bootable in the first place. The second problem is that you can’t just stick an ISO file on a drive and expect it to boot. You must extract the contents to the drive, as those are important.

Windows allows you to format a drive with a boot sector so that it can be picked up by your computer before attempting to boot from the hard disk. Format your USB drive and, under the formatting options, select “ISO Image” under “Create a bootable disk using.”

Select the ISO image you’d like to copy to the USB drive and let it do the rest of the work. Once formatted with an operating system, you can use it as a bootable drive! If you continue to have problems, come back around and we’ll answer any other questions you have.

Q: My computer is running an x86 version of Windows 7, and it shows only 2.99 GB of usable RAM. How can I get it to recognize all 6 GB?

A: Because of the limitations with x86 logical registries on the processor, the computer cannot recognize any value above 4,294,967,296. That’s exactly 4 GB of addressing space on your RAM. You must run an x64 version of Windows to solve this problem. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to use more than 3-4 GB of RAM.

Q: My computer is hanging on “Starting Windows.” How do I get past this?

A: There are two major reasons this could happen: Either your hard drive has a couple of bad sectors in a system-allocated space, or your RAM isn’t functioning like it should. It’s more likely a case of the former than the latter.

To fix this problem, you should turn your computer off by holding down the power button (also known as a “cold boot”) and turning it on again after about 5 seconds. Windows will know that its bootup process was interrupted for some reason or another, but it still doesn’t know that there was a problem. Once you cold boot your computer a few times, it might get a whiff of something wrong going on, which is when it will start running a utility called “chkdsk.” This checks your system disk for errors and attempts to fix them. Once everything is solved, get yourself a new hard drive.

For the second, and rather unlikely, problem, just replace your RAM with some spare cards and check to see whether your computer boots up normally using the new spares. If it still hangs on “Starting Windows,” assume that the hard disk is still the problem.

There’s yet another rare chance that one of the system files that Windows depends on has been over-written, modified, or infected in some way. This requires a reinstallation or repair of Windows using the installation DVD.

Q: I run Windows 7 N Edition. How can I install Windows Media Player on it? I can’t find it anywhere.

A: Windows 7 N Edition was meant for the European market, which legally requires Microsoft to allow for fair competition, letting users choose whether they want to use Internet Explorer or another browser. Likewise, this version also comes without Windows Media Player, allowing for other media players to take a bit more market share. If you’d like to install WMP on your computer, download the Media Pack for Windows 7 N and KN here.

Q: A friend of mine bought a new computer with Windows 7 installed, but it no longer supports Outlook Express 6. How can I export the emails into a readable format on the new computer?

A: Outlook Express 6 has been superseded by Windows Live Mail. You can download Windows Live Mail as part of the Windows Live Essentials package here. Once you have installed it, click “File -> Import -> Messages -> From Microsoft Outlook Express 6.” This will allow you to get all of your friend’s email into that platform, in a readable form. Hope this helps!

Got Your Own Question?

Please submit all inquiries using the “Ask Our Experts Now!” button in the right-hand sidebar on any page of this website. If you have something to discuss regarding the questions asked in this segment of the “Ask a Windows Expert” series, please use the comments section below. That’s all, folks!

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1. Make Windows 7 Shut Down Faster

Windows 7 applies certain timeouts to services that need a slight delay to properly shut down, without overwhelming the computer’s processor. If you have a fast enough processor, you certainly don’t need this functionality. Why wait for services to shut off if you can just terminate them almost instantly? The delay for Windows 7 service shutdowns is stored within a key in the registry.

To enhance your shutdown experience, open the Start menu, type “regedit,” and press “Enter.” Navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control” and look at the right-hand side of the window. Modify the value named “WaitToKillServiceTimeout” to “2000” or some other low value. The default is 12000, which means it waits 12 seconds. We’re done here!

2. Reduce the Amount of Time Thumbnail Previews Take to Show Up

If you hover your mouse over any icon that has a thumbnail preview, there’s a certain delay before that thumbnail shows up. We’re going to make that delay shorter with a simple registry hack that will make thumbnails appear almost instantly. Windows puts a 400 millisecond delay, but some people would prefer to see thumbnails almost instantly. If you’re one of those people, don’t skip this tip!

Open up the registry editor as in the previous step, and navigate to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse“. Modify “MouseHoverTime” to 100 or something else more comfortable for you. Once this is applied, you’ll have almost instant thumbnails, allowing you to waste less time waiting for them to appear.

3. Test The Speed of a USB Drive Before Applying ReadyBoost

Not too long ago, we’ve already discussed using Windows 7′s ReadyBoost to add to your RAM. Now, we’ve forgot to mention one question: How fast is that RAM going to be? You’d end up screwing your computer up even more with a slow USB drive on ReadyBoost compared to one with a ton of horsepower. Using your operating system, you can test speed by transferring a large file, but this doesn’t fully test its potential.

That’s where Crystal DiskMark comes in. Once you run the software, it will do a full comprehensive test of any drive on your computer, including SD cards! You can download Crystal DiskMark from its website here.

Make sure you don’t use a USB drive with low specs. Otherwise, you’ll end up with some programs running unbelievably slowly. You don’t want your computer to turn into a snail, do you? Speed is what people use ReadyBoost for in the first place!

4. Speed Up Your Netbook

Netbooks usually don’t come with specs that compare vis-à-vis to a desktop computer. For that reason, many of them run Windows 7 Starter, which doesn’t have as many resource-hungry features as other versions of the operating system do. Still, some of them come with more bulky versions of Windows 7 that might seem to work fine on them, but will eventually slow down and just drag the whole system down to a screeching halt. The majority of things that netbooks can’t quite stand about Windows 7 come from the visual effects of the OS. So why don’t we get rid of some of those?

Let’s get down to business! Go to your Start menu, type “SystemPropertiesPerformance” and hit “Enter.” You should be at a screen like this:

Once you’re done, click “Adjust for best performance” and click “OK.” You’re all set!

With everything applied, you’ll likely end up with a much smoother operating system without all the fancy effects.

5. Increase Performance in Games

Tons of people still prefer to use a PC rather than/paired together with an XBox or other gaming console for an ultimate gaming experience. However, even with the best hardware, your computer will not be able to take advantage of every drop of every frame as long as it’s running services that eat up resources every few minutes or so. Imagine being able to stop all those services while you’re gaming, making your computer an excellent powerhouse for gaming! You can do this using Game Booster by IObit. The company has made this free software with the intention of optimizing any computer for gaming. Download the software here.

6. Put Your CPUs to Work While Booting!

On the majority of computers, Windows adequately sets how many CPU cores a computer can use. However, there are cases when Windows uses only one CPU core to process the entire bootup. Does a carriage go faster with one horse, or four horses? Why don’t you give your computer more horsepower while booting? Let’s put in every core!

Open up MSConfig by clicking the “Start” menu and typing “msconfig“. Click the “Boot” tab in MSConfig and click the “Advanced” button.

Under “Number of CPUs”, give it your all! Select the highest amount of CPUs possible there, as long as you know you have as many processing cores. This will give you a significant boost as long as you can compensate with a high amount of RAM. In Windows 7, we recommend you have 4 GB RAM installed for a quick boot.

7. Use a Tweaking Utility to Fine-Tune Windows

While I personally don’t like recommending these fancy “tweaking utilities,” some people like using them, so why not include at least one? TweakNow PowerPack is a very potent utility that reverse-engineers Windows very well. You don’t necessarily have to defragment the registry, but cleaning it through the program would be ideal. Make sure you back up your registry before using it.

The application not only shows you a lot of your system’s specifications, but also gives you the ability to do things like advanced disk cleanup and changing systems settings in ways you never thought possible! Give it a shot and download it here. It’s free.

Thoughts?

Let us know if you’d like to add something to this or whether you’d like to start a discussion about some of the information mentioned so far. Let’s hear you in the comments section!

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1. Use a 4-Digit PIN to Log In to Windows Instead of a Password

While Windows 8 might still integrate the logon capabilities of its predecessors, it also adds a bit of a twist: You can log in to Windows 8 using a 4-digit PIN code. Since several applications in the banking and telecommunications industries use PIN codes, it might be simpler to log in with a PIN code for those who are used to this kind of authentication. However, the Windows 8 PIN authentication method was chiefly designed to make the authentication process simpler for those with touchscreens, who would take upwards of 30 seconds to type in a complex alphanumeric password.

If you would like to use a 4-digit PIN, click the “Control Panel” tile in the Metro UI once you’ve logged in.

Within the control panel’s “Users” section, search for a button that says “create a PIN.”

A screen will show up asking you to authenticate using your current long and boring password. Do that and click OK. Now, you’ll be able to enter your PIN and configure everything to your desire. Enjoy!

2. Log In With a Picture

Although this might be a bit less safe of an authentication method, you can use Windows 8 to log you in using a photograph. The software lets you use any picture you want and apply gestures around the picture. Let’s say you put a picture of your kid as the logon picture. You can configure the computer to authenticate you by circling your finger or mouse cursor around your kid’s eyes and poking his/her nose. This authentication method is much faster than conventional alphanumeric authentication, almost at the same level as the PIN authentication mentioned earlier. Let’s configure your picture!

Just use the same method as the previous section, except that you’ll be clicking “Create a picture password” instead of “Create a PIN.” Just walk through the steps and you’ll have this authentication configured in no time!

In the below example, someone configures a picture in a way that he pokes the woman on the left’s nose, draws a circle around the head of the man in the middle, and draws a line between the noses of the two ladies on the right:

3. Remove Visual Effects for Better Performance

Every version of Windows since XP has had visual effects designed to give the user a more “fluid” experience. The only problem with this is that, if you do not have a high-performance computer, your computer is going to freeze slightly while minimizing or maximizing windows. This is also true for Windows 8, an operating system jam-packed with visual effects.

While it’s not necessary to remove visual effects seen in Windows 8, you must do this if you experience slight skipping when modifying a window. This kind of thing is visible chiefly in computers that have low amounts of physical memory, graphical memory, and slow CPUs.

To configure this, search for “SystemPropertiesPerformance” and press “Enter.” Once you’re in, click the “Visual Effects” tab and configure the visual effects, enabling and disabling what you want.

4. Configure OpenDNS to Browse Faster

If you haven’t heard of it already, OpenDNS is a very fast DNS server that is more reliable than what some ISPs have to offer. If you notice that you’re taking a long time to connect to a web page (right before the page starts loading), then you probably have a weak DNS server on your ISP. Many service providers have heavy DNS resolution traffic, making it difficult to hold their own. Give your ISP a break and configure OpenDNS on Windows 8 to make your experience more magical!

To configure OpenDNS on your computer, first make a search for “ncpa.cpl“. Once in your network interface window, right-click the network interface you use to connect to the Internet and click “Properties.” Select “Internet Protocol Version 4″ and click “Properties.” Select “Use the following DNS server addresses” and configure the following two addresses: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.

5. Configure Metro App Links to Open in Your Desktop

Windows 8 introduces the Metro UI, an interface that runs above the desktop, allowing you to have full-screen applications that operate on cloud storage and include tons of other features that give you a very unique experience. While you might like to use some of the apps in Metro, you might not like them opening a full-screen version of Internet Explorer every time you click a link. Fortunately, you can configure Metro to open the desktop version of Internet Explorer instead.

To configure Metro applications to open the desktop version of IE, you must first go to your Internet options. Do this by opening the “Search” charm and searching for “inetcpl.cpl“.

Select the “Programs” tab and, under “Choose how you open links,” select “Always in Internet Explorer on the desktop.” Once you click “OK,” you’ll see links open up in the desktop instead.

Bonus! Tweak Your Desktop to Make it More Accessible for Touchscreens!

Here’s one thing that drives people nuts: Accidentally touching something you shouldn’t on your screen. This happens often on Windows’ desktop. All that said, let’s hop straight to modifying your desktop!

Touch your desktop background and hold it down until a small context menu appears. Once there, touch “Screen Resolution.” Inside the screen resolution window, touch “Make text and other items larger or smaller.” Make them huge, click “Apply,” and restart the system!

Now, get back to that context menu we told you to go to in the previous paragraph. Touch “View,” and touch “Large icons.” That’s much better, isn’t it?

We’re not done yet! Get to your “C” drive and select “Large icons” near the top of the window. Now, we’re going to help you configure all icons on every folder of the computer to look like this!

Hit “File” and go to “Change folder and search options.” Once there, get to the “View” tab. Hit “Apply to Folders,” and then click “Yes” to confirm your action. Once you click “OK,” you’ve got yourself a touchscreen-friendly desktop!

Any More Thoughts?

If you’ve got some tweaks you’d like to talk about, hit us up in the comments section. Please let us know if something is not working or if you can’t follow the steps. We usually respond rather quickly to inquiries. Have a great day!

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With these numbers in mind, it can become an issue for the users to update their software to the latest version, particularly if they have installed hundreds of software on their PCs. To counter this problem, the concept of automatic software updaters was introduced which would check for updates of all the software installed in the computer and notify the user of all the updates available for their PCs. These software are also called software updates monitors.

In this article, we will be discussing almost all the software updater available publicly today. If I miss one, you can share it in the comments below. Please note that all these software are not alike. Some software may be used for monitoring general software updates while some may be related to security apps and patches only.

1. FileHippo Update Checker

FileHippo Update Checker is one of my favorite as it is extremely small in size and very easy to use. After the installation, FileHippo Update Checker will scan for installed software and send the information to FileHippo servers to compare the versions of software installed on the PC and available on FileHippo.com.

It will then display a list of updates available and the download links to new updated software. One has to manually download the software and install it on the computer. FileHippo Update Checker is very good for those who want to keep an eye on everything that is being updated or installed.

One drawback of FileHippo Update Checker is that it does not support all the new software being released daily but it supports majority of the popular software. FileHippo Update Checker works on all versions of Windows but it requires .NET Framework 2.0 or later to be installed.

Download FileHippo Update Checker

2. CNet TechTracker

CNet TechTracker is from the owners of download.com which is considered to be a one stop destination for software downloads. Usually the updates to the software are available on CNet software catalog sooner than other sites. Another advantage of installing CNet TechTracker is that most of the software are tested for spyware and malware before being updated.

CNet TechTracker is the best tool for those who want to have a “set it and forget it” functionality. One thing to note that while installing this software updater, it will also install a search toolbar which can be annoying for many users. You have to be careful while installing TechTracker and select “I do not accept” when the toolbar offer is made.

Download CNet TechTracker

3. SUMo

SUMo (Software Updates Monitor) is another great software updater which is easy to use and can automate the software updates process. The biggest disadvantage of SUMo is with its installation procedure. You have to be very careful while installing SUMo because it will ask you to install some useless toolbars and software which you should always decline.

After the installation, SUMo will give you an option to either open SUMo settings or automatically detect installed software. After automatic detection, you have to click on the next button “Check for updates for your installed software”. The scanning and updating process is very fast and takes just a few moments to get the results. You can update the software by selecting it and clicking on the Get Updates button. You can also select multiple items by using Ctrl and Shift keys.

SUMo makes use of different software download sites in order to get the updates. The download sites include FileForum, Softonic, Download.com, Softpedia, Snapfiles, FileHippo etc.

Download SUMo

Note: The best way to keep away from bundled software which comes with SUMo is to download the zipped versions of SUMo instead of the installer.

4. UpdateStar

UpdateStar is another popular software updates client. UpdateStar is one of the first software updater that I started using. The interface of UpdateStar is not as user friendly as other software updater discussed above. There are two editions of UpdateStar – free and premium. The premium edition is paid and is fully automated. You don’t have to touch anything in order to update the software installed in the system. UpdateStar premium will automatically update the software and let you know in the system tray. This feature is not available in the freeware edition of UpdateStar.

UpdateStar delivers only major releases of the installed programs making sure that you always have the stable version of software installed.

Download UpdateStar

5. R-Updater

R-Updater is a light weight software updates monitor program which does not take a lot of resources when running. It is available as an installer as well in portable edition. R-Updater starts with Windows and keeps on checking for new versions of installed software every now and then. You can also change the checking schedule in the settings.

The best feature of R-Updater is that in addition to checking for new updates, it also offers to download Giveaway of the day software daily. Going to giveawayoftheday.com and checking for new giveaway daily is hard while R-Updater notifies about the latest giveaways on your desktop.

Download R-Updater

6. Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspector)

Secunia PSI is another popular automatic software updating solution. When it comes to security updates and patches, Secunia PSI is the best in the competition. I’m currently using Secunia PSI 3 beta. With version 3, the software gets a really simple and user friendly interface. It takes a few moments to open. You will need to scan your PC for installed software in order for Secunia PSI to start working. It will also scan for Windows security updates and let you install the updates from within the program interface.

Overall Secunia PSI is a bit slower than other software updaters but it delivers solid security and software updates.

Download Secunia PSI

Other software updaters

The above mentioned software updaters were the most popular update monitoring software used by millions of users. There are a few others worth mentioning. I found all these updating software while researching for this article.

• Carambis Software Updater – includes multilingual support and a very quick scanning engine with one click scanning option.
• Glarysoft Software Update – informs whenever a new update of a software is available. You can share information and comment on the new software updates.
• RadarSync – automatically download and installs new updates to installed software.
• Appupdater – very similar to Linux apt-get and yum and provides the automated installation and maintenance of installed software.
• Update Notifier – a portable software updater with a watch list feature where you can add programs to your watch list.
• Ketarin – Ketarin keeps the setup packages up to date instead of the installed programs. So if you have a software repository in your computer, Ketarin will keep it up to date.
• Software Informer – lets you find new software according to your needs while keeping the installed software up to date.
• FileREX Update Checker – automatically detects installed apps and then gives download links to the latest versions available.
• Patch My PC – checks for the latest versions of popular software. Patching those popular programs in time keeps the hackers away from the computer.
• Seven Update - very much like Windows Update but it keeps third party software updated. It is free and open source.
• Software-UpToDate - a very simple program which notifies about the recently updated software and gives download links to those software.

The good thing about these software updaters is that usually they do not conflict with each other. If you want to install multiple software updater monitoring programs, you can do it without any problems.

I have tried my best to collect all the software updaters in one place but in case I have missed one, please share it in the comments below.

Image credit: update button concept by Big Stock Photo.

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Q: I get a BSOD with error code 0×00000050. How do I solve this?

A: First of all, you need to know the cause of your BSOD. This error is registered in MSDN as “Page fault in non-paged area,” usually meaning that some driver or service threw up an error regarding paged memory (a form of RAM stored on your hard drive) regarding a particular address within that memory that wasn’t even paged in the first place. In this case, it means that it’s giving an error on an address that was supposedly reserved, but had no such reservation.

This kind of error happens when some hardware or driver you installed is faulty. If you just installed a new piece of hardware, remove it. If you installed a new driver, uninstall it.

If you still have problems after performing either of these two actions, then you probably have faulty RAM or a faulty hard drive. You’ll have to remove the RAM or the hard drive and replace either with a spare to find out which one is faulty. You might have to work with a ton of trial and error to see what’s going on, so patience is key to solving this problem.

Q: I just reinstalled Windows on my laptop, and I’m not getting wireless connectivity. How can I resolve this issue?

A: First of all, you should be using the reinstallation procedure described by your laptop’s manufacturer. The fact you’re not getting wireless connectivity should tell you that wireless drivers on the laptop have not been installed. Chances are you are using a version of Windows that didn’t come with your laptop or still have other discs to insert that came with the computer. You must install the drivers pertaining to your laptop’s wireless device, otherwise, you won’t have connectivity.

Q: My computer just started booting very slowly. What could be the problem?

A: This could happen because of many reasons. Long story short: You should use MSConfig to eliminate unnecessary startup applications. Read this article on making Windows 7 boot faster to get some inspiration!

Q: I just unplugged my second monitor and my programs are still opening off the screen. How can I get them to open on the monitor that’s left?

A: The second monitor will most likely remain detected, regardless of whether you unplugged it or not. You need to tell Windows that the monitor is missing. You can do this easily by pressing “Win+P” on your keyboard. Hold the “Win” key and press “P” repeatedly until you reach the “Computer only.” Once you’ve selected the correct mode, your programs will all open within the same screen. Some programs “remember” the monitor they appeared in. If they see that Windows detects it, they’ll just keep trying to open in the missing monitor.

Q: I have to reboot my computer every time I want to visit a new site after browsing the web for around 15 minutes. Everything else works fine except my browser. What could solve this?

A: This sounds like a case of a malware invasion on your computer. Scan your computer for viruses using a competent anti-virus application. You should really invest in these solutions especially if you’re not very tech-literate. There’s no shame in admitting it!

Q: My laptop is stuck on “Resuming Windows” when starting up. How can I stop this from happening?

A: This happens often when your laptop isn’t compatible with Windows’ hibernation mode. Disabling it will solve this problem.

First, click the Start button, then type “cmd“. Before pressing “Enter” on your keyboard, hold “Ctrl” and “Shift.” This will make sure that the command line starts in “elevated” mode.

Once in your command prompt, type

powercfg -h off

and press “Enter” on your keyboard. You’re done! Oh, and to get back to Windows while it’s stuck on “resuming,” just hold down the power button until it turns off. That erases any instance of hibernation on your computer.

Q: My drive is showing me less space than it really has when I go on “Computer.” Why does this happen?

A: Most drives often come with less memory than they advertise. How much of a difference is this? You’re saying that your drive is showing you only 1.6 GB of free memory out of 17 that should be there on a 100 GB hard drive.

This seems normal. Hard drive manufacturers often calculate memory differently to inflate the number a bit, when they actually manufacture the hard drive with a lower number. Sorry this happened to you, but it happens more often than we’d like. Look at what a computer gets on a 500 GB HDD:

Notice how, out of 500 GB, we end up with 465 GB. This is a common phenomenon. You’ll just have to get a bigger drive. As far as we know, nothing’s wrong with your Windows installation or drive.

Q: I just got myself a very fast computer and have a very decent Internet connection. With all this, YouTube videos are freezing all the time. How can I stop this?

A: That’s easy! Just download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. You can get that here. Hope this solves your problem!

Got a Question?

Let’s have a talk! Click the “Ask Our Experts Now” button on the right-hand side of any page of this site. There, you’ll find a  contact form that will let you ask any question about Windows you wish! Remember to ask questions related to Windows and any hardware that’s supposed to interact with it.

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Explore Pokki

Navigate to the Pokki website and sign up for an account. Once you log in, you are free to explore the options available for social shortcuts. Choose from “social sites”, “useful utilities”, “”productivity” (including the popular Pomodoro Timer) and more.

When you hover over any of the site icon, it will give you detailed information about the shortcut and the features it offers. The screenshots will help you see how efficient they will be compared to logging into the sites directly.

Choose Your Sites

Tweeki

This shortcut is a great mini version of Twitter. Since the shortcut is right in your taskbar, it’s easy to take a quick look at what’s going on in your Twitter feed or to post a Tweet yourself. Click the Tweeki Download button on the Pokki page and follow the prompts to access you twitter profile.

The icon automatically loads onto your taskbar for easy access. To open it, click on the Twitter bird icon and log into your account.

Upon logging in, you will see that it looks like a mobile version of Twitter with all of the necessary features of the full size site. The first tab is the Trends tab where you can see what the most popular topics are.

The feed is the next section, which will likely be the one you will keep open on your desktop. You have the full feed visible and have a place at the bottom to add your own tweet or re-tweet something of interest right from the shortcut.

The mentions, direct message, and search features are all there as well. Everything you know and love about Twitter right on your desktop! This Twitter shortcut is best for the simplicity that other social media managers don’t offer and with a 100% user rating, I’d say many others agree!

Facebook

The Facebook shortcut gives you a very streamlined look at your news feed and notifications in an easy to see and use interface. The icon in the taskbar will display a number if you have notifications so you can take a quick peek and also catch up on any current happenings in the news feed.

To install it, go to the social Pokki page and click on the Facebook Download to install the shortcut. It will now appear in your taskbar along with any other shortcuts you downloaded. Click on the icon to open and log in and you’re ready to roll!

Gmail

If you have one or more Gmail accounts, you will find this shortcut extremely useful! You can now access all of your Gmail accounts with the click of a button right from your desktop! Never wonder if you have email messages waiting in your inbox again- any waiting messages will be displayed next to the icon,

To get started, go to the Gmail page in Pokki and download the shortcut. When you sign in, click on the arrow next to your account name. A drop down menu will give you the option to sign into more accounts and sign out of individual or all accounts. You can also switch between accounts by clicking on the name of the account you want to access.

YouTube

If your business or hobby revolves around YouTube video’s, you may like this shortcut for keeping tabs on your competitor’s content or for finding future ideas. Just like the other shortcuts, navigate to the Pokki YouTube page and download the YouTube shortcut. The play button for the YouTube shortcut will be placed directly on your taskbar upon download for easy access.

All the features you need are available in the shortcut version so you can search and watch video’s from each category or by entering keywords in the search bar. The only thing I would like to see added to this shortcut is the ability to log into your own YouTube account to create and view your content as well as track the analytics. Hopefully that’s a feature that will come in the future.

I love having these shortcuts on my desktop for easy and quick viewing. The one click access means I can get in and get out without interfering with my productivity. Let us know which shortcuts you downloaded and how they are working out for you!

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1. Win+Up/Down Arrow

If you’re looking for a way to maximize and minimize your windows quickly, pressing “Win” and the “Up” arrow on your keyboard will maximize any window. In exchange, using the “Down” arrow will first restore it, if it was maximized, and then minimize it once you press the “Down” arrow again.

2. Win+Left/Right Arrow

Let’s say you want to split a monitor down the middle by arranging windows vertically, one next to another. You can do this easily by pressing “Win” and the “Left” arrow to move the window to the left half of the screen. The “Right” arrow will do the same on the right side of the screen. This is particularly useful on a high-aspect-ratio monitor.

3. Win+T

Unlike “Win+Tab,” this key combination lets you have a tiny preview of each running application and cycles between previews every time you press it. The preview looks something like this:

4. Win+F

Use this key combination to open Windows Search. If you got something quick to search for, though, you can go ahead and use the top right corner of any Explorer window. With Windows Search you can search your entire computer for something that you’ve been looking for. It will scan every volume you have installed on your computer. Don’t underestimate its power!

5. Win+X

If you have the Mobile PC option in your control panel, you can open the Windows Mobility Center using this shortcut. The Mobility Center allows you to check your battery, change power settings, change brightness, adjust the volume, enable projector presentations, and sync with other devices all from one window. It’s a powerful feature for when you’re running on a laptop or a tablet because every single drop of juice from your battery counts.

6. Win+E

If you want to get a quick look into your libraries – as they’re called in Windows 7 – then you can use this key combination to immediately open Windows Explorer. You’ll have instant access to your hard drives and connected devices from this window.

7. Win+Pause/Break

The “Pause/Break” key has often been ignored by many people, but remains a powerful piece of a shortcut in Windows 7 that lets you easily access your system properties window and see what kind of specifications your computer has, who it’s registered to, and what Windows Experience Index the computer has.

8. Win+Ctrl+F

This keyboard shortcut will let you find other computers in your network if you have joined a domain. It’s useful for finding resources that are shared on computers in a very large network. Here’s what the window looks like:

9. Ctrl+Shift+Click Item on Taskbar

Our own JJ has previously mentioned “Shift+Clicking” an item on the taskbar to open a new instance of that window. If you add “Ctrl” to that mix, you get to open a new instance of a window in administrator mode. Give it a shot!

10. Alt+D

While on Windows Explorer, you can quickly switch over to the address bar by using this shortcut. Take note that, while out of Explorer, you’ll just switch to the desktop and minimize all windows. Pressing it again will reverse the process in case you accidentally activate minimization.

11. Alt+Win+1-9

This keyboard shortcut will open the “jumplist” of any application currently open on or pinned to the taskbar. Check below for an example.

12. Alt+Up Arrow

Instead of clicking the “Back” or “Up” button, you can use this key combo to go up a level in Windows Explorer. Note that this only works in Explorer. We don’t guarantee this capability in other applications. To go up a level on Explorer means to go to the parent folder of the directory you currently find yourself in.

13. Shift+Right-Click (On a File)

While you’re in Windows Explorer, have you ever come up with the need to copy a file’s full path? Many people say that such a thing isn’t possible from a context menu unless you use third-party help. No way! Windows comes with such a feature integrated already! If you use this keyboard shortcut, you’ll have “Copy as path” listed in your context menu. Try it!

This will put the file’s full path on your clipboard, so you can paste it at your convenience elsewhere. It comes useful for those of you who write tutorials that involve lots of path names.

14. Shift+Right-Click Folder

So, this will amount to trying the last trick on a folder instead of a file. It adds the ability to open the directory in the command prompt.

15. Win+B

This nifty little shortcut key shoots you directly to the System Tray icon area, located on the far right side of the taskbar, where Windows displays your system time. It’s an easy way to get there when your mouse batteries are dead!

Got Any More?

Bring it on! We’d love to know what other key combos you’ve discovered! Don’t forget that there are already another two articles on MTE regarding Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts. They’re linked here and here.

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1. Disable Search Indexing

One of the most resource-hungry features of Windows 7 is search indexing, which creates a dictionary for your files, allowing you to perform faster searches. The problem is that, while it’s creating that dictionary, it consumes your hard drive’s read/write speeds significantly, making it difficult to navigate through applications while indexing is taking place. That’s why Microsoft included an option to turn this off.

To effectively disable this feature, follow through this path: “Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Services”. Once in that window, scroll down to “Windows Search.” Right-click the item and click “Properties.” Within the window, select “Disable” under “Startup type,” like so:

Click “OK” once finished. Once you reboot or stop the service manually, you won’t have to worry about your hard disk being eaten alive.

2. Disable Aero

If your computer gets kind of clunky while playing a movie or has difficulty emulating the graphics when you minimize or open a window, it’s probably time to sacrifice the pretty effects that Windows 7 Aero brings with it and just live with simple bland colors. The interface will function similarly to how Windows 7 Starter does. Removing Aero will give your computer a little more breathing room, especially if the display adapter uses some of the PC’s physical memory to perform.

Remove Aero by right-clicking your desktop, clicking “Personalize,” scrolling down the list of themes that appear, and selecting “Windows Basic.” You’re done!

3. Use MSConfig to Your Advantage!

Although we’ve discussed this before, it never hurts to reiterate that MSConfig is an important tool to help you improve your boot time. There are several services and startup applications that take up tons of resources while Windows boots. For those of you who have to bear a sluggish boot process, this is the tool to use. Here are some services you should consider disabling:

• Application Experience
• Diagnostic Policy Service
• Distributed Link Tracking Client
• Offline Files
• Portable Device Enumerator Service
• Protected Storage
• Secondary Logon
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Service
• Windows Media Center Service Launcher

If you are aware of any other services that can be disabled without losing core system functionality, show them to us below in the comments section.

4. Disable Visual Effects

For many people, Windows works just fine without all the fancy visual hoopla that comes attached to it. Some would even consider it preferable! Visual effects are the kinds of things that make your computer hang when you minimize, maximize, open, and close a window. Windows 7 introduces a whole series of new visual effects that also can make a computer hang when hovering the cursor over an open window’s icon. If you don’t want these things to use up the visual resources on your computer, you can easily disable them.

All you have to do is follow this path: “Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Advanced system settings -> Advanced tab -> Settings (under “Performance”).” Once there, select “Custom.” Now, just deselect anything you think might not be important and click “OK” after you’re done.

Disabling the majority of these items will still keep most of the capabilities in Windows without requiring that you sacrifice a certain amount of RAM as a tribute. As a downside, you’ll have a blander look on your computer which might take some getting used to.

5. Use ReadyBoost

Of all the features on Windows 7, ReadyBoost seems to be one that most people are oblivious about. The problem is that it’s also one of the most important features, allowing you to significantly boost your system memory using a USB flash drive. If you have a ReadyBoost-compatible USB drive, you can configure your operating system to use it as a RAM module, effectively increasing the amount of physical memory you have by the amount of memory available on the drive.

To configure ReadyBoost on your USB drive, right-click on its icon in “Computer” and click “Properties.” Once there, click on the “ReadyBoost” tab. If you don’t find one, your device is not compatible with this feature. Once in the tab, select “Use this device.” The slider below the area you selected allows you to configure exactly how much memory you’d like to dedicate to ReadyBoost.

Depending on the speed of the drive, and the speed of your USB port, you’ll be able to significantly increase the speed at which Windows interacts because of the sudden spike in the amount of memory available to it. You can run more programs at the same time. This also frees up the hard disk’s virtual memory a bit, since it doesn’t have to store so much data.

6. Get Rid of Features You Don’t Use

There’s one more way to get rid of things you don’t necessarily need in Windows: by turning Windows features off. Just go to your control panel, then go to “Programs -> Programs and Features.” Click on “Turn Windows features on or off,” found at the top left-hand corner of the “Programs and Features” window.

Follow the instructions at the top of the new window, and deselect features you’re absolutely sure you don’t need. After you click “OK,” your problems just went “poof!”

Questions?

Instructions like these can’t be easy for everyone to follow. If you have a problem, talk to us in the comments section below or click the “Ask Our Experts Now” button on the right-side of this page. We’re always watching!

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If you have not been active in the blogosphere these few days, the biggest news is the launch of the SkyDrive desktop app and the Google Drive. We are not going to discuss Google Drive today. For SkyDrive, the deal is that your original 25GB storage space (if you are already a SkyDrive user) is reduced to 7GB if you currently have less than 4GB of files in the account. To get more storage space, you will have to fork out money and pay for it. However, for a limited time, Microsoft allows you to upgrade your 7GB storage space to 25GB for… FREE. Here is how you do it. Grab it while it lasts!

1. Go to SkyDrive Live and login to your MSN account.

2. On the left pane, click the “Manage Storage” link.

3. Under the Storage Plans, you should see a “Free Upgrade” link. Click on it.

That’s it. Your SkyDrive storage space should return to 25GB now.

At the same time, do download the SkyDrive app for Windows or Mac too. It allows you to sync and access your SkyDrive folder directly from your desktop, much like the Dropbox-way.

via MSNBC

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