Miscellaneous
•Win+P: Display the project options, which you can then use the arrow keys (or keep hitting Win+P) to switch to the different options.
•Win+G: Bring gadgets to the top of the Z-order. (Sets the focus to a gadget.)
•Win+G: Bring gadgets to the top of the Z-order. (Sets the focus to a gadget.)
Windows Explorer
•Ctrl+(mouse scroll wheel): Change the view/zoom in Windows Explorer. (This is the same as clicking the Views button or selecting one of the view options from the button’s dropdown list.)
•Shift+(right mouse click on any folder or file): Displays an expanded context menu:
(The additional Open options only appear for folders but the “Copy as path” option appears for both folders and files.)
•Alt+P: Show/hide the preview pane.
Taskbar:
•Win+Space: Use “Aero Peek” to see any gadgets or icons you’ve got on your desktop.
•Win+R: Opens the Run dialog.
•Win+T: Move the focus to the first taskbar. (Pressing again will cycle through them.)
•Win+Shift+T: Move the focus to the last taskbar. (Pressing again will cycle through them.)
•Ctrl+(mouse click on a single application icon in the task bar): Toggle through each of the open windows in order. The best example of this is Internet Explorer. If you have five tabs open in a single IE instance, holding the Ctrl key while repeatedly clicking on the single IE icon in the task bar will toggle through each of the five tabs in order.
•Ctrl+Shift+(mouse click on an application icon in the task bar): Launch that application with full administrative rights. You can also use Ctrl+Shift+Enter for commands from the search bar for the same action.
•Shift+(mouse click on an application icon in the task bar): Launch a new instance of the application rather than switching to the existing application. (You can also middle-click with the third mouse button or scroll wheel.)
•Win+1 .. Win+5: Launch a new instance of the any of the first five icons on the task bar. (By the way, the icons can be reordered to suit your needs by simply dragging them around and can be pinned shortcuts or running applications.)
•Shift+(right mouse click on an application icon in the task bar): Show the Window menu. (You get different menus depending on whether the application is running or has multiple instances open.
Window Management
•Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow: Dock a window to the left or right half of the screen.
•Win+Shift+Left Arrow and Win+Shift+Right Arrow: Move a window from one monitor to another, keeping them in the same relative location to the monitor’s top-left origin.
•Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow: Maximizes and restores/minimizes a window.
•Win+Shift+Up Arrow and Win+Shift+Down Arrow: Maximizes and restores the vertical size of a window.
•Win+Home: Minimize all the non-active background windows, keeping the window you’re using in its current position. (Press Win+Home again to restore the windows to their original locations.)
•Win+(plus key) and Win+(minus key): Zoom in or out using Windows Magnifer.
•Win+E: Opens Windows Explorer.
•Win+U: Opens the Ease of Access Center.
•Win+D: Show/hide the desktop.
•Win+F: Opens the Search Results window.
•Win+L: Locks the computer.
•Win+B: Sets focus to the “Show hidden icons” button on the task bar.
•Win+M: Minimizes all windows.
•Win+Ctrl+F: Opens the Active Directory Find Computers dialog.
For those who really would prefer a look more reminiscent of Windows Vista, the good news is that it’s easy to customize the look of the taskbar to more closely mirror the old version:
Step 1: To achieve this look, right-click on the taskbar and choose the properties dialog.
Step 2 :Select the “small icons” checkbox and under the “taskbar buttons” setting, choose “combine when taskbar is full”. It’s not pixel-perfect in accuracy, but it’s close from a functionality point of view.
I Want My Quick Launch Toolbar Back! You might have noticed that the old faithful Quick Launch toolbar is not only disabled by default in Windows 7, it’s actually missing from the list of toolbars. As is probably obvious, the concept of having a set of pinned shortcut icons is now integrated directly into the new taskbar. You can enable it by doing the below steps:
◦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.
If it’s not obvious by the semi-tortuous steps above, it’s worth noting that this isn’t something we’re exactly desperate for folks to re-enable, but it’s there if you really need it for some reason. Incidentally, we’d love you to really try the new model first and give us feedback on why you felt the new taskbar didn’t suit your needs.
Had enough of messing around with weird and wonderful OEM display driver utilities to get your notebook display onto an external projector? In that case, you’ll be pleased to know that projection is really quick and simple with Windows 7. Just hit Win+P, and you’ll be rewarded by the following pop-up window:
Use the arrow keys (or keep hitting Win+P) to switch to “clone”, “extend” or “external only” display settings. You can also access the application as displayswitch.exe.
If you want broader control over presentation settings, you can also press Win+X to open the Windows Mobility Center, which allows you to turn on a presentation “mode” that switches IM clients to do not disturb, disables screensavers, sets a neutral wallpaper etc. (Note that this feature is also available in Windows Vista.)
By now, you’ve probably seen that Windows 7 does a lot to make window management easier: 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. What you might not know is that all these actions are also available with keyboard shortcuts:
◦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.
This side-by-side docking feature is particularly invaluable on widescreen monitors – it makes the old Windows way of shift-clicking on two items in the taskbar and then using the context menu to arrange them feel really painful.
Windows 7 doesn’t include a movie editing tool – it’s been moved to the Windows Live Essentials package, along with Photo Gallery, Mail and Messenger.
You can download Windows Movie Maker..
Download Windows Movie Maker 2.6 from here:
Windows Movie Maker 2.6
This is for most of you who have taken Windows 7 beta for a spin. It’s been awhile since I’ve been using new OS and naturally I’m quite impressed with its technicalities. What took me for a while was the Windows 7 theme packs. The default one offers a clear glass color, Windows default sound scheme and the Windows Logo screen-saver. The Landscape light aura and Nature are charming but I was still looking for more. I got hold of some more themes, but in the hidden & locked themes. Now the question is how do I unlock the pandora’s box.
At first sight it was like a Monty Hall puzzle that could take my head, but then with a bit things were simplified beyond expectation.
It was pretty simple. Here’s what you need to do
Step 1
Open the Explorer (Windows + E) and go to C:\Windows\winsxs
Step 2
Enter *.theme into the search field. Alternately you can use the * sign on the number block.
Step 3
You’ll get the Click me prompt
Step 4
Double-click the themes ZA, US, GB, CA, AU to install them.
Bingo! you have gotta 5 cool themes for your Windows 7. Let me know if you had any troubles doing this.
Taskbar thumbnail previews are one of the more cool features in Windows 7.
To decrease the time taken to display thumbnails in Windows 7 make these tweaks.
Click on Start and type in regedit and hit Enter
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
Right-click on Advanced, select ‘New DWORD‘ and enter the following value: “ThumbnailLivePreviewHoverTime”
Then right-click on ‘ThumbnailLivePreviewHoverTime’ and select ‘Modify’.
Choose Decimal Base and enter in your new number in milliseconds. Use 200 for 0.2 seconds or a speed that suits you.
Click Ok and restart PC
