Windows 7 shortcuts 1: window management

Windows 7 provides a great variety of short cuts you can use, I’ll divide them here by categories as “windows management, taskbar ……etc”, these shortcuts will make the Computer easier to use, below some of them:

1. Win + space: Aero peek, where you can see the desktop by making other windows transparent.

2. Win + left/right arrow: moves or docks the active window to each side of the screen.

3. Shift + Win + left/right arrow: if you have more than one monitor, it’ll move the active window to the right or left monitor.

4. Win + down arrow: minimize the current active window.

5. Win + up arrow: maximize the current active window.

6. Shift + win + up arrow: maximize windows vertically.

7. Win + home key: minimize all windows except the current active window.

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Dragging with mouse:

1. Drag to the top: maximize window.

2. Drag to the left/right: fill half the screen left or right.

3. Shake window left and right: minimize all windows except the current active one (you’re shaking)

4. Double clicking any window title bar: maximize it

How to activate the old quick launch toolbar in windows 7:

Well, Lots of you might have missed the old windows xp and vista quick launch bar, some of you found that the pinning function isn’t a good replacement yet, Fortunately, the quick launch toolbar can be reactivated in a seconds just follow the following steps:

1. Right Click on any free empty area on your taskbar then choose toolbars > new toolbar

2. Type exactly the following into the folder box “ %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch “ and press enter.

3. Now it appeared, but to be exactly as u used to, right click on your taskbar again and uncheck lock the taskbar

put it in the position you want by dragging it to the extreme left side for example

4. Now right click on the divider and uncheck “show title” and “show text”

5. Now relock your taskbar.

6. You’re now done, enjoy the old quick launch bar!

Screen calibration on windows 7

Well, do you feel that the text on your p.c screen isn’t good enough? Do you think that the colors are awful? , some other times you see the brightness of your screen isn’t adequate?

Actually, the text or photos on one screen , may differ from another one, LCD may differ from a regular one, so Microsoft realized that and made it easier in windows 7 to calibrate your screen so it shows as perfect, they’ve included a screen calibration tool that is really awesome, so easy to use, and by few clicks you get superior text, photos and videos.

To access this tool, simply do the following:

1. Click on start menu

2. Type the following in the search box “dccw” and press enter.

3. Just follow the wizard which will cover each and everything you may need to view on your screen, have fun.

ReadyBoost function: speed up windows 7 by using your flash memory as a RAM!

Well, your P.C has a low memory and it’s slow, also you don’t have enough money to buy a new RAM, but you have a flash memory, well that’s it!

Windows 7 (and vista actually) has developed a new function, before when you don’t have enough RAM the windows used the paging file functions, where they use part of the hard drive as a virtual memory, well, this could be good, but the problem is the hard disk virtual memory is slow, So Microsoft recently developed a new function, It’s the ReadyBoost function, where you use your flash memory drive as a virtual memory, it’s away faster than hard drive and cheaper than RAM, well, here are the steps to follow:

1. You’d better format your flash memory as NTFS , this is much faster

2. You should have at least 256 MB of free memory

3. Insert your flash drive to your PC .

4. Open my computer, right click on your flash disk and choose properties.

5. Under the ReadyBoost tab, you have three functions :
* don’t use this device
* Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost: uses the entire free space of your flash drive as a virtual memory
*Use this device: on this scale you can determine the amount you want to use as a virtual memory

6. When you finish doing this click on ok, and enjoy a speedy PC.

Disable startup programs in windows 7

Today I want to show you something, some of you have noticed that your computer is becoming kinda slow when opening, or there’s lots of programs loaded into memory (RAM) when you open your p.c, here’s how you can disable unneeded programs from starting when windows starts , this will make windows loads away faster, and of course will enhance the computer performance, however , make sure that you know each and every program you disable , because disabling programs that’s necessary for windows or programs makes your computer unstable.

· Well, first click on the start button and in the search box type msconfig and press enter.

· The following window will appear, click on the startup tap.

· Here you’ll find a list of all programs that loads when your p.c boots (as shown above), uncheck the programs you’re sure you don’t need, be aware not to disable antivirus or other necessary programs, then click ok, a message will appear asking you to restart your computer, do it and you’re done !

Choosing what closing the lid does...

If you do have a laptop, you must have asked yourself a question like this, how can I control what closing the lid does?, here there is a detailed description .

Some noticed that closing the lid does one of the following:

1. Do nothing

2. Sleep (stand by)

3. Hibernate

4. Shuts down the p.c

Well, to access the window that allows you to choose what closing the lid does follow this steps:

· Right click on the battery icon in the taskbar (Tray ) and choose “Power Options” or click on start > control panel > and on the top right in the search pane type “Power Options” and double click to access.

· The following window will appear, on the left, click on “choose what closing the lid does “

· The following window will appear, beside “when I close the lid” you’ll find two drop down menus , the first if the laptop is on battery and the other if it’s plugged into power source.

· When we click on the drop down menu we’ll find the following options as before:

1. Do nothing : Ideal if you’re playing music, or any other activity that doesn’t require the display, so you save the battery by a significant amount.
2. Sleep: best option for a laptop, that automatically turns your computer to standby .
3. Hibernate: If you don’t use your laptop frequently but need it to save your session (more power reserve)
4.shutdown : shuts down your p.c.

When you finish click on “save changes” to apply your settings

combining buttons

Well, one of the most important and great functions in windows seven is combining buttons, when Microsoft designed windows 7, one of the most interactive points they focused on was making the screen less crowded, make it simple, so that for sure enhanced the efficiency and performance, this also developed a great appearance, first before we begin a detailed description on this function, we should know how they appear:

This is an active combined button:

And this is an inactive combined one:

And this of course is the regular one:

This buttons is on the taskbar of course, so we should get access to the taskbar properties:

First: right click on the taskbar and then properties as shown below:

The following window will appear

Under the taskbar tab you’ll find “taskbar buttons” option as shown above.

When you click the drop down menu, you’ll find three options as follows:

1.Always combine: this will make your buttons always combined.

Combine when taskbar is full: this makes the buttons uncombined and only combined when you open too many windows of the same program

2. which makes the taskbar looks like this way

3.Never combine : some people don’t prefer the combining functions as they want to view labels and Icons always so this is suitable for them , but will make the taskbar look crowded,

Just finish this, choose what suits you, and then click ok.