Windows 7 Tips and Tweaks

[spacesurfer]

Registry

-----------

1) Adding Items to Right-click Computer. You may have noticed that adding certain registry tweaks work and certain tweaks don't. The ones that do not work is because certain parts of the registry is now protected. Thus, trying to add Device Manager or Advanced System Properties to right-click menu of Computer will give you an error.

In order to get around that, navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} using regedit. Right-click and go to permissions. Then, make yourself the owner. Then, give your self permission to modify and all. Then you can double-click on your registry file to add it. If you don't have these tweaks, here they are:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\AdvSysProp]
@=hex(2):41,00,64,00,76,00,61,00,6e,00,63,00,65,00,64,00,20,00,53,00,79,00,73,\
  00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,20,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,70,00,65,00,72,00,74,00,69,00,\
  65,00,73,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\AdvSysProp\command]
@=hex(2):63,00,6f,00,6e,00,74,00,72,00,6f,00,6c,00,20,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,64,\
  00,6d,00,2e,00,63,00,70,00,6c,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\Devices]
@=hex(2):44,00,65,00,76,00,69,00,63,00,65,00,20,00,4d,00,61,00,6e,00,61,00,67,\
 00,65,00,72,00,00,00
"SuppressionPolicy"=dword:4000003c

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\Devices\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,77,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,69,00,72,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,\
 00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,6d,00,6d,00,63,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,\
 65,00,20,00,2f,00,73,00,20,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,\
 00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,\
 32,00,5c,00,64,00,65,00,76,00,6d,00,67,00,6d,00,74,00,2e,00,6d,00,73,00,63,\
 00,20,00,2f,00,73,00,00,00

2) Disable Web Services. If you want to disable the annoying "check the web to open files of unknown types", then use this tweak. It still works in Windows 7 without modifying permissions.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Disable Webservices for unknown file types
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoInternetOpenWith"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoInternetOpenWith"=dword:00000001

3) Disable Administrative Shares.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters]
"AutoShareServer"=dword:00000000
"AutoShareWks"=dword:00000000

4) Add "Take Ownership" Right-Click Context Menu

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Created by Vishal Gupta for AskVG.com

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas]
@="Take Ownership"
"NoWorkingDirectory"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\runas\command]
@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"

Non-registry Tips and Tweaks

-----------------------------------

* The tips and tweaks below are from by Tim Sneath from The Bumber List of Windows 7 Secrets. I included the best one. You can follow the URL for the full list.

1) Docking Windows. You can “dock” a window to the left or right half of the screen by simply dragging it to the edge; similarly, you can drag the window to the top of the screen to maximize it, and double-click the window top / bottom border to maximize it vertically with the same horizontal width. With the keyboard, you can

* Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow dock;

* Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow maximizes and restores / minimizes;

* Win+Shift+Up Arrow and Win+Shift+Down Arrow maximizes and restores the vertical size.

2) Cut Out The Clutter. Working on a document in a window and want to get rid of all the extraneous background noise? Simply hit Win+Home to minimize all the non-active background windows, keeping the window you’re using in its current position. When you’re ready, simply press Win+Home again to restore the background windows to their original locations.

3) Multi-Monitor Windows Management. The earlier tip on window management showed how you can dock windows within a monitor. One refinement of those shortcuts is that you can use Win+Shift+Left Arrow and Win+Shift+Right Arrow to move windows from one monitor to another – keeping them in the same relative location to the monitor’s top-left origin.

4) Quick Launch Toolbar. Windows 7 made an attempt to remove the quick launch. There is still a way to bring it back in current builds. To re-enable it, do the following:

* Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar

* In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:

%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

* Turn off the “lock the taskbar” setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that “Show text” and “Show title”

are disabled and the view is set to “small icons”.

* Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.

5) Swooshing Gesture for Jumplists in taskbar. Another way to access them (particularly useful if you’re running Windows 7 on a one-button MacBook) is by left-clicking and dragging up in a kind of “swooshing” motion. This was designed for touch-enabled devices like the beautiful HP TouchSmart all-in-one PC, where the same gesture applies.

6) Another place where you can “swoosh” (not an official Microsoft term) is the IE 8 address bar, where the downward drag gesture brings up an expanded list containing the browser history, favorites and similar entries. The slower you drag, the cooler the animation!

7) Peeking at the Desktop. You’ve probably seen the small rectangle in the bottom right hand corner: this is the feature called “Aero Peek”, which enables you to see any gadgets or icons you’ve got on your desktop. A keyboard shortcut that does the same thing – just press Win+Space.

8) Running with Elevated Rights. Want to quickly launch a taskbar-docked application as an administrator? It’s easy – hold down Ctrl+Shift while you click on the icon, and you’ll immediately launch it with full administrative rights (assuming your account has the necessary permissions, of course!)

9) Duplicating Taskbar Windows. If you’ve already got an application open on your desktop (for example, a command prompt window), and you want to open a second instance of the same application, you don’t have to go back to the start menu. You can simply hold down the Shift key while clicking on the taskbar icon, and it will open a new instance of the application rather than switching to the existing application. For a keyboard-free shortcut, you can middle-click with the third mouse button to do the same thing. (This trick assumes that your application supports multiple running instances, naturally.)

Edited April 10, 2009 by spacesurfer

[Nihility]

This article has a detailed list of just about every new windows 7 feature:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/..._uncovered_date

I find a lot of them to be really usefull.

The ones I use most are:

1. Drag windows to top of screen to maximize.

2. Middle click on program in taskbar to open another instance.

3. Hiding programs in the system tray.

4. Opening programs in vista compatibility (live messenger and pidgin)

5. Desktop slide show, every 30 minutes win7 will change my desktop. I get mine here http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/..._uncovered_date.

6. I also use pin to left and right but my monitor isn't a widescreen so it's only partially usefull.

7. I use Aero Peak A LOT(!!!). Mostly the winkey+space shortcut. But also hovering over a the preview thumb of an application in the taskbar. That works great but unfortunately win7 doesn't update the thumb if the program is minimized. So a file copy progress will not be updated (that being said, copying the file using windows explorer will display a green progress bar on the icon itself which is nifty. So when firefox finally takes advantage of that option I'll be happy).

I think that's about it...

Edit:

I also use winkey+ + (plus key) to zoom in on the desktop. I like this feature a lot but it does have some awkwardness to it. For instance, I'd like the program to turn itself off when I return to regular zoom and not take up space.

I use winkey + {number} to launch programs from the task bar. This was also possible in Vista and has only been slightly modified in 7 to make use of the Task Bar instead of the quicklaunch toolbar. Mostly I use it to launch "Snipping Tool" (the screenshot tool for vista/7) which I have pinned to the first place in my taskbar (so winkey+1). This allows me to take screenshots of my start menu

Edit2: A registry tweak

It's possible to make the thumbnails in the taskbar appear faster by changing a registry entry

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse

and change:

MouseHoverTime from 400 to anything lower (I set it to 100, this apears to be ms)

originally found here: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=4459

This requires a restart, as far as I can tell. I've just done it and it works fine.

Edited February 11, 2009 by Nihility