Windows7

A lot of Microsoft users complain about Windows 7 crashes nowadays. Apparently, the system just crashes at random – sometimes after logging in, sometimes during intense games, sometimes while files are being worked, and sometimes even just while surfing the World Wide Web. Several users have even dubbed this glitch with a name: the black screen of death. This name has come about because the computer’s screen just turns black and crashes without warning. This crash can definitely be very frustrating, but the good news is that there are several ways to fix this particular problem. Here’s how. Continue reading »

The default action of the Start Menu’s Shut down button is to turn off your PC. If you want to use the button for another action, such as restarting your PC, you click the arrow to the right of the Shut down button and select an action from the drop-down menu.

What if you rarely shut your PC down completely but frequently restart it? Continue reading »

Note: This tip relies on the Group Policy Editor, which isn’t available in some versions of Windows 7. Thus, this tip will not work if you have the Home Premium, Starter, or Home Basic editions of Windows 7.

The Start Menu’s search box is a convenient way to search through your PC — but you can also have it do double-duty and perform Internet searches as well. Continue reading »

Have a laptop and want to get more battery life out of it? Windows 7 includes a hidden built-in tool that will examine your laptop’s energy use and make recommendations on how to improve it. To use it:

1. Run a command prompt as an administrator. To do this, type cmd in the search box, and when the cmd icon appears, right-click it and choose “Run as administrator.” Continue reading »

When you first install Windows 7, it asks for your language, time and currency. Based on your responses, it installs a set of wallpapers and themes. If you choose English (United States) for your time and currency format, for example, the available desktop backgrounds and themes will include a United States section with scenery from locations such as Maine, the Southwest and so on. Continue reading »

One of the recent additions to the Windows version of the Google Chrome web browser was support for the Windows 7 taskbar to show preview thumbnails of all open tabs of the web browser in the taskbar. That feature addition caused some controversy as it was not possible to disable it. Continue reading »

Microsoft said Friday that its inquiry confirms that a tool aimed to make it easier to load Windows 7 on a Netbook does in fact contain open-source code.

“After looking at the code in question, we are now able to confirm this was indeed the case, although it was not intentional on our part,” Microsoft’s Peter Galli said in a blog posting. “While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process. We have furthermore conducted a review of other code provided through the Microsoft Store and this was the only incident of this sort we could find.

As a result, Microsoft said it will make available next week the source code for the tool as well as the binaries under the terms of the General Public License (GPL v2). Microsoft will also make the tool again available to customers at the Microsoft store. Continue reading »

Microsoft have embraced video like never before with the launch of Windows 7.  One of the most useful of these videos is a quick tutorial on how to upgrade your PC from Windows XP.

Continue reading »

Microsoft have launched the compatibility centre for Windows 7.  A website simply containing a database of software and hardware that is known to work fine with their new operating system. Continue reading »

If you don’t want the same old blue log on screen for your Windows Vista, here’s what you gotta do. Go ahead with the steps below. (An alternative way can be found here: Windows 7 Logon Changer)

• Step 1: Download the file – http://www.mediafire.com/?e9y3j3vme0w
• Step 2: Click on Save and save the .zip file to the desktop
• Step 3: Open the .zip file and extract the .reg file to the desktop
• Step 4: Right click the .reg file (On Desktop) and click on Merge.
• Step 5: Click on Run, and press Yes, Yes, and OK when prompted
• Step 6: Save the custom .jpg image you want to use to the desktop with the name backgroundDefault.jpg
• Step 7: Check to see what your primary display screen resolution is. (You can do it by right clicking on any empty space on your desktop and choose screen resolution and then actuate it with your monitor’s specification.)
• Step 8: Open Paint, and click on the File icon (top left corner), Open, and navigate to and select the .jpg image from step 6. [NOTE: You can open Paint by typing mspaint.exe in the Start menu search line]
• Step 9: In Paint, click on Resize, dot Pixels, uncheck Maintain aspect ratio, then resize the .jpg image to the screen resolution size in step 7 (whatever be yours)
• Step 10:Save the .jpg file to the desktop with the exact file name below with the screen resolution size of the image. When completed, close Paint
• Step 11: In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:Windowssystem32oobeinfobackgrounds
• Step 12: Copy and Paste the .jpg files from step 10, and from step 6 into the C:Windowssystem32oobeinfobackgrounds folder, then close the window
• Step 13: You’re logon screen is now changed. You can press Ctrl+Alt+Del to test it. Click on Cancel to return to the desktop.

[NOTE: You can now delete the .reg and .zip files on the desktop if you like.]