![HAdd The Quick Launch Bar To Windows 7 [How-To]](http://cache9.groovypost.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/image_thumb.png)
Windows 7 comes packed with a lot of new and interesting backgrounds. However Windows 7 fails to include an easy way to change the background you see every single time you login to your computer. Perhaps you want a little flavor, or maybe you just don’t like the built-in background. Whatever the case may be, with this groovy trick you can change the background for both your Windows 7 logon screen and the menu you see whenever you hit CTRL+ALT+DEL . Continue reading
It’s here folks! Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available for download via Windows Update or direct download. Hit up this page for all the details about the update, and this link for all the download options. Continue reading
In my household, Macs and PCs live in harmony. And thanks to built-in SMB sharing in OS X, sharing files and folders between Windows and OS X isn’t nearly as challenging as it has been in the past. You can get your Windows 7 PC and your Mac OS X computer reading and writing to each others’ files and folders via your home network in no time with minimal fiddling in their respective system preferences.
Let’s take a look how I do it! Continue reading
ImageUSB is utterly useful for users who write images to USBs on regular basis. ImageUSB is developed on a different concept than XBoot but keeping the very same users in mind. It enables you to write an image file to multiple USB flash drives simultaneously, so you wont need to wait until writing process on one USB gets completed, just plug-in USBs to write data on all of them at once.
Additionally, it allows you to not only write data to flash drive but image can be created from USB onto multiple flash drives as well. These modes can be selected prior to starting the writing process. As of now, it is only capable to write and create BIN files. According to the developer, support for other eminent image formats will be added in forthcoming releases.
Application usage is simple, first you need to plug-in USB drives which are to be written, it is recommended to use pre-formatted disc because it will cleanup all the existing data without any prompt. Once flash drives are listed, specify the mode – Write to UFD (USB Flash Drive) or Create from UFD followed by the location where BIN file is residing. Now Click Write to UDF button to begin the process.
Since writing data manually on more than one USB drives is a tedious job to go by, having an application like ImageUSB will prove to be one real time-saver. It supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Testing was done on Window 7 x64 system.
If Windows 7 is in your use for some time now, you might have noticed that it does not allow you to pin icons directly on to the taskbar. For instance, if you have tried dragging and placing ‘Recycle Bin‘ on the taskbar, you probably might have noticed that it gets pinned under the Windows Explorer rather than appearing as a separate icon on the taskbar as it normally would appear in Windows Vista orWindows XP.
In order to place a ‘Recycle Bin’ you’ll need to tweak it a little bit. The idea is very simple; create a shortcut and point it to the original Recycle Bin and then place that created shortcut onto the taskbar. Now the question is how are we going to point a shortcut to the original Recycle Bin folder? Simple; add a small snippet (code) to it.
This is what you will have to do to place an icon on to the taskbar;
Step #1. Right-Click on the desktop and go to New->Shortcut (its the second option from above);
Step #2. Now add the following line in the item box;
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe shell:RecycleBinFolder
Step #3. Hit Next, type a new name, in this case; Recycle bin and hit Enter;
Once the new icon is created, you’ll notice that it does not have the right icon image. In order to counter this problem, Right click on the icon, select Properties from the menu,
Step #4. A new pop-up window will now appear, click on the ‘change icon‘ button (as shown below) and hit Enter;
In Windows 7, mouse is still essential, with lots of new feature which takes advantage of mouse gesture, such as Aero Snap, Aero Peek, Aero Shake and etc. However, some users still prefer to use keyboard to use the Windows operating system.
For keyboard lover, Microsoft has added several keyboard shortcuts, hot keys or keyboard accelerators to make navigation and usage of Windows 7, especially the new Windows Aero snapping feature easier by using keyboard. Here’s a few keyboard shortcut keys or keyboard accelerators that new in Windows 7.
It took Mircrosoft long enough to figure out the compatibility issue of .ISO files (a.k.a. disk image) which persisted in the older versions of Windows. Previously, users had to download a third-party tool to burn .ISO files to DVDs. Gladly, that issue has now been catered for. The upcoming OS system – Windows 7 – detects and supports .ISO files.
With Windows 7 friendly user interface, you can burn tonnes of .ISO files with ease. Here is what you have to do;
Step #1. Insert a blank CD/DVD into your CD/DVD Writer;
Step #2. Right click on the .ISO file and click on the ‘Burn disc image‘ from the drop down menu;
Step #3. A new pop-up window will now appear, if you have more than one CD/DVD drives, choose the appropriate drive from the list.
Step #4. Hit the ‘Burn‘ button when done.
I wonder was it too hard for Microsoft to think of it in the earlier versions of Windows? Was it?!
The above screenshot is the Windows 7 taskbar after changing back to XP/Vista mode, and adding the quick launch bar back. Looks just like Vista doesn’t it?
The other only way you can obtain Windows 7 now is through torrents. If you are not sure what torrents are, it’s P2P technology that makes file-sharing easy. To start off, you need to download a torrent client. uTorrent is a good lightweight client and can be downloadedhere. Once you install uTorrent, head to one of the largest torrent directories listed below.
The Pirate Bay
Demonoid
BtJunkie
Mininova
Generally, you want to download from torrents with the highest seeder to leecher ratio. That is, the more seeders and less leechers, the faster the download. Usually, torrents with over hundreds of seeders are safe and legit, but you may want to read the comments to see if the torrent you are downloading is legitimate and safe.
Just click on Download this Torrent and open the file. If .torrent is not yet associated with your torrent client (uTorrent in this case), find uTorrent in the Program Files folder and open it. Just click on OK and the download will proceed.
Windows 7, the new operating system from Microsoft, has some high technical requirements and you should first test if your computer can handle Windows 7 before you buy or download it.
Technical requirements:
- 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
- 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
In order to test if your computer is Windows 7 Ready you need to download the software provided by Microsoft, and install it on your harddrive.
You can download Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from here.
1. After you install it start up the program and click Start Check.
2. Wait until it finishes the checking.
3. You will see a list with all the problem that you need to fix in order to install Windows 7.
