Customization in Window 7

Upgrading From Windows 7 RC To Final

The steps that were outlined for upgrading the Windows 7 beta release to release candidate were the following:

• > Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
• > Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from.
• > Browse to the sources directory.
• > Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like pad.
• > Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7100 to 7000.
• > Save the file in place with the same name.
• > Run setup like you would normally from this modify copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed.
• The RTM build of Windows 7 is distributed with the build number 7600.
• An upgrade from release candidate to RTM build would therefor require the modification of the MinClient build number from 7600 to 7100 or lower.

User Account pictures in Windows 7

You can find the default pictures of Windows 7 user Account in a hidden folder, path given below. Also you can find Admin and guest account picture here.

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• > The default Pictures are located in the hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures folder.
• > The default Standard and administrator account picture is the hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp file.
• > The default Guest account picture is the hidden C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\guest.bmp file.
• If you wish to change these simply replace them with another file up to 128 x 128 pixels in size to prevent it from being automatically cropped to fit the user picture display box.

Windows Application Compatibility Mode

Windows Vista onwards Compatibility mode is provided in applications. Compatibility mode allows an older application compatible for earlier versions of Windows to possibly run in Windows 7. It runs the program using settings from a previous version of Windows. Changing the compatibility mode solves the problem most of the time which is generally crashing of an application while executing it on a newer Windows. Even If changing the Compatibility settings does not fix the problem, you need to check for an update for that application at the manufacturer‟s website.

• Right click on the programs shortcut, Application file, or installation program.
• Click on Properties. It will show properties of that application with few tabs.
• Click on the Compatibility tab.
• To Run a Program in Compatibility Mode you can select compatibility mode for a previous version of Windows.
• Choose the one this program works well on or the one you believe this program runs well on.
• Check the Run this program in compatibility mode Check box.
• Now click on the drop down menu and select which version of Windows the program was made for.
• Few more settings can be changed to make the application more compatible. Checking the checkbox enables that particular setting.
• These settings are: Run in 256 colors Run in 640 × 480 screen resolution Disable visual themes Disable desktop composition Disable display scaling on high DPI settings
• Click OK to apply the changes. It is recommended that Compatibility mode must not be used with system applications like system drivers or antivirus as that may cause losses and risks to your data.

Windows Media Player 12 : Customize Playlist

Windows media Player Navigation pane by default shows only 5 recent playlists. This can be changed to show all playlists you have. To do so switch to WMP library and right click on Playlists in navigation pane. Here click on customize navigation pane which opens a popup where you can select to display “Recent 5“or “All” playlists. Further Video, Music, Synch options are available there.

PC Safeguard

I rarely let anyone use my PC because I’m afraid he will mess it up, but it seems Microsoft has been thinking at me and came with a solution.

The PC Safeguard doesn’t let anyone mess your PC settings, because after the user logs off, the configurations are reset back to normal. Of course it will not restore the configurations changed by you, but only the ones done by other users you define.To use PC Safeguard, go to Control Panel

-> User Accounts and create a new account, then select “Set Up Pc Safeguard” and switch it on. Then you can stay relaxed when others use your computer, because you won’t find anything changed, including configurations, downloaded software, installed programs.

Screen Calibration

Fortunately, Windows 7 comes with a display calibration wizard that lets you set up the screen brightness properly, so you won’t have any problems viewing photos or text. The problem was that on one PC a photo could look sharp and bright and on another it looks awful. Now the problem can be fixed by pressing the Windows logo key and then typing “DCCW”.

AppLocker

If you are usually sharing your computer with someone else, then you might want to restrict their access to your applications, files or documents. Using the AppLocker tool, you have a few options to do this by blocking other users to access Executables, Windows Installers, Scripts, a specific publisher or path.You can simply do this by pressing the Windows key then typing Gpedit.msc. Then go to Computer Navigation -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Application Control Policies -> AppLocker. Right click on one of the options (Executables, Installers, or Script) and create a new rule. That should save you from a lot of headaches.

Burn Images

We all had trouble with image burning in Windows, because it couldn’t do it itself, a standalone software being needed. With Windows 7 this will not be a problem anymore. All you have to do is double-click the ISO image and burn it on the CD or DVD that’s inserted in the drive.

Display Empty Removable Drives

Windows 7 will not show empty drives by default, so if you connect an empty drive to your PC, don’t worry, just go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View and uncheck “Hide empty drives in the computer folder”. This doesn’t seem like a good idea and it should not be default setting, because it will be hard for inexperienced users to figure it out. I bet a lot of users will return their newly bought drive thinking it’s broken.

Dock The Current Windows To The Left Side Of The Screen

This new feature seems useful because sometimes it’s disturbing that windows seems to float like crazy on the screen and it’s hard to attach them to one side of it. Now this can easily be done using a keyboard shortcut. Press the Windows key + Left key (arrow) to dock it to the left side of the screen.

Display Or Hide The Explorer Preview Panel

Press ALT + P to hide it then once again to display it.

Display Gadgets On Top Of Other Windows

Press ALT + G

Background Photo Slideshow

If you are like me, lazy and bored, then you will want to change the background from time to time, wasting a lot of time. Now you don’t have to do this anymore, because you can set up a slideshow.Right click on the desktop then go to Personalize -> Desktop Background and hold the CTRL key while choosing the images. Then you can choose the time intervals between images and opt to display them randomly or in a row.

Make The Taskbar Smaller

If you feel like the taskbar is using too much of your screen space, you can choose to make the icons smaller.
To do this, right-click on the Start button, then go to Properties -> Taskbar and set it to “Use small icons”

Combine Taskbar Icons

When you have more windows or applications opened, the taskbar’s space might not be enough for them all, so you need to combine them, just like you would in Windows XP or Vista. To do this, right-click the Start button, then go to Properties -> Taskbar and check “Combine when taskbar is full”.

Multi-threaded File Copy

If you are a more advanced user, you’ve heard already about Robocopy. Now it’s included in Windows 7 and lets you perform multi-threaded copies from the command line. You can choose the number of threads like this “/MT[:n], which can be from 1 to 128.

Maximize Or Restore The Foreground Window

Press Windows Key + Up Key.

Activate The Quick Launch Toolbar

Press Windows Key + Down Key

Minimize The Active Window

The Quick Launch Toolbar in Windows XP and in Vista seems a very good idea that you might miss when using Windows 7. Fortunately though, you can get it back in a quick few steps.Right click the taskbar, go to Toolbar -> New Toolbar and type “%UserProfile%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch” into the folder box, then click Select Folder.To make it look like it would in Windows Vista, right click the taskbar, uncheck “Lock the Taskbar”, then right click the divider and uncheck “Show Title” and “Show Text”. Then right click the taskbar and check “Show Small Icons” and you should be done.

Preview Photos In Windows Explorer

While in Windows Explorer, Press ALT + P and a preview should appear on the right.

Desktop Magnifier

Press the Windows Key and the Plus Key to zoom in or Windows Key and the Minus Key to zoom out. You can zoom anywhere on the desktop and you can even configure your magnifier. You can choose to invert colors, follow the mouse pointer, follow the keyboard focus, or the text insertion point.

Minimize Everything Except The Current Window

Press the Windows Key + Home Key.

TroubleShoot Power Management

Windows 7 can tell you how much power your system uses or provide detailed information about the power usage and issues caused by each application and device. This way you can optimize the way your battery is used, making It last longer.Press the Windows Key and type “POWERCFG –ENERGY –OUTPUT ”, and it will create a file called energy-report.html in the folder specified by you, after observing your PC for 60 seconds.

Force Reboot

Many times android users face a problem of freezing of mobile phone, In case your android phone is frozen, you can reboot it using an android trick.

Quick Google Access:

Android phones built primarily for internet, many of android users dont know that android phones provide a way by which we can access Google search in just a single click. To use this android trick

Press menu key and hold it for couple of seconds, it will launch the Google search.

Reboot Android in safe mode:

As like computers, we can also reboot android phones in safe mode. The latest android jelly bean version provides an option to reboot in safe mode, if something goes wrong.

To reboot your android in safe mode, follow the below given instructions.

• Long press the power button
  
• Long press on the power off option.
  

Android phone will show a confirmation message about rebooting it in safe mode, if we reboot android phone in safe mode then all the 3rd party application will be disabled. These applications can again be enabled when we reboot our phone normally. This is a great android utility in case when, one of your 3rd party application is causing trouble for you and you want to hunt it.

Unlock android phones by face detection:

This is a cool android trick by which you can unlock your phone by using face detection, In the jelly bean version, android provides a way by which android phone can be unlock using face detection, to make this feature more secure, jelly bean version added another layer of protection in which android phone can be unlocked only when the face is matched as well as we have to blink eyes in order to unlock phone. Blinking eyes tells the android security system that person is live and its not an illegal attempt of unlocking using a still image. To activate this,

Go to Settings > Security > Screen lock > Face unlock.

Get detailed information about phone status:

We can get the detailed statistics like phone information, battery information, usage statistics and WiFi information by just dialing *#*#4636#*#*

This is a handy USSD to get the details about battery usage, DNS check, Ping, Application time usage time and so on.

Move android apps to SD card:

Its good idea to install android apps in SD card, but what if you installed apps on your phone memory. Dont worry android phones provide a way by which we can move our apps to SD card. To move apps to SD card, follow these steps:

Go to settings > Application settings > Manage application > Select the application, You will see the option Move to SD card.

Note:- It depende on your android version or app permissions.

Hard Reset and Factory reset your android phone:

This android trick comes handy at the time of selling an android phone. Android phone can be formatted in two ways.

Factory reset
Hard reset


• Factory reset: In factory reset, your phone is being formatted to factory level. Means all the settings will go by default and all the internal data will be deleted. To factory reset a phone dial *#*#7780#*#*.
  
• Hard reset: To hard reset a phone dial *2767*3855#, this will delete all the data (including internal and External SD data) as well as settings of android phone. Dont try this code for testing purpose, until you are not sure. It will not ask for a confirmation.

Context menu in android:

long press on the screen, will show you additional options for customizing android phones.
This context menu is somewhat similar to the right click menu of most operating systems.

Taking screen shots on android phone:

Android phones offer a great feature by which we can take the screen shot without using any 3rd party application. However the screen shot android tricks vary from one android version to another version.

Press the Home button + power button (This trick work on most android phones.) For Galaxy Nexus: Power button + volume down button.

For Galaxy Note 2 and S3: Swipe your palm on the screen to take screen shot.

Known The Android version in Animation

This is another cool android trick to play with your android phone. To use this android trick,

• >Go to settings
• > about phone
• > Tab repeatedly on Android version.

After sometime, the android version will be animated.