All the "secrets" of Windows 7

Original author: Tim Sneath
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By popular demand - the translation of the article "The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets".

Here, the introduction was missed about how cool it is that Windows 7 was released, which everyone will miss anyway and will read the "secrets" themselves.

1. Window Management


You probably already know that Windows 7 makes working with windows much easier. The window can be “attached” to the left or right half of the screen simply by sliding to the corresponding edge, and the window can also be expanded / restored vertically by double-clicking on the bottom border of the window. But what you probably don’t know is that all these actions are accessible through hot keys.
  • Win + Left and Win + Right - attach a window
  • Win + Up and Win + Down - maximizes and restores / minimizes a window
  • Win + Shift + Up and Win + Shift + Down - maximize and restore the window vertically

2. Projectors.


Are you already tired of tormenting with a specific driver in order to get your laptop to display the desktop on the projector? In this case, you will be glad to know that working with a projector is much easier in Win 7. The Win + P combination brings up the following window:
Win + P - projector settings
By clicking on the arrows or repeating the Win + P combination, you can switch to the “clone”, “expand the desktop” modes [ to an external device] or “external device only”. This can also be done through the displayswitch.exe application.

If you want wider control, you can get it through the Mobility Center (Win + X), which allows you to enable the presentation mode, during which message clients switch to do not disturb mode, turn off screensavers, set neutral wallpapers, etc. d. (ps There is also a Mobility Center in Windows Vista)

3. Noise reduction


The original article signs as “a fashionable option to eliminate rear noise,” in fact it is a key combination Win + Home , which minimizes / restores all windows except the active one.

4. Management of multiple displays


Previous tours have shown that you can attach windows to the display. In addition to this, we can say that for this there are hot keys. Win + Shift + Left and Win + Shift + Right will move the window between displays while holding it at the same distance from the upper left corner.

5. Only for command line maniacs


One of the most popular utilities in the Windows XP Power Toys suite was the “Open Command Prompt Here” explorer context menu item. In Windows 7 (and in Windows Vista too, although many do not know) this item is in the context menu, but when you call up the menu, you need to hold down the Shift key. If the current directory is networked, Windows will automatically mount the network drive.

6. Big village


It is said that the set of standard wallpapers depends on the language selected during installation. However, each distribution contains all the wallpapers. They lie in C: \ Windows \ Globalization \ MCT .

7. Black box


Each developer will print so that the end user can quickly and easily demonstrate what and how does not work on his (user) machine. Windows 7 to the rescue!
One of the built-in diagnostic utilities that we use to send error reports is the Problem Steps Recorder, which is a simple tool for recording a sequence of actions ( not in the form of video! - approx. Translations ) that occur on the screen. When you click Record, it tracks the actions of the keyboard and mouse and takes screenshots to which you can add comments. After recording, the utility saves all the pictures in a ZIP archive containing an HTML presentation from all the pictures. The program is called psr.exe and you can find it in the control panel in the section "Record steps to reproduce a problem".

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8. Fonts


A button “Install” was added to the font viewing applet.

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And in the standard font selection dialog, the font name is now displayed with this particular font

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. Many improvements related to typography also appeared: grouping by boldness, hiding / displaying fonts depending on regional settings, a new text rendering mechanism built into the DirectWrite API, as well as more font decoration settings, unlike the standard four.

9. Gabriola


Along with other typography improvements, Windows 7 includes Gabriola, an improved highlight font developed by Tiro Typeworks that can be used by OpenType Layout to display many styles and styles.

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10. Who stole my browser?


If it seems to you that Internet Explorer is slowly loading pages, then it makes sense to look at the installed add-ons because One of the handy enhancements in IE8 is its toolkit. Go to the Tools / Manage Add-ons dialog box and then review the list for add-on loading times. On my machine, I noticed that the Research add-on, which installs Office 2007, is slightly slower and I don’t use it at all, so I turned it off.

11. Furniture relocation


Unless someone shows you, you probably won’t notice that the icons on the taskbar are fixed (apparently it means that the same application always creates an icon in the same place - approx. Translations) . You can move them however you want. What else is great - you can start any of the first five applications (icons on the taskbar), the key combination Win + 1, Win + 2, Win + 3 ... . For example, I really like that at any time I can launch a new Notepad2 window simply by pressing Win + 5, for example.

However, even fewer people know that the icons in the system tray (tray) can also be moved as you like.

12. Installation from a USB stick


My wife has a Samsung NC10 netbook and we wanted to put Windows 7 there in order to replace the preinstalled Windows XP. Like most machines of this class, it did not have a DVD drive, and I did not have an external DVD USB drive either. The problem was solved like this: I took a 4-gigabyte USB flash drive (USB 2.0) formatted in FAT32 and simply copied the contents of the Windows 7 Beta ISO-image onto this USB flash drive using the command xcopy e: \ f: \ / e / f (e: - this is my DVD, and f: - the flash drive itself).

Installing from a flash drive is not only simple, but also quick - faster than from a DVD on my stationary workstation.

I can not fail to note that Windows 7 is much better suited for netbooks, it uses less disk space and memory than Vista, while at the same time being more prepared for working with SSDs (for example, it turns off defragmentation, because it is irrelevant for such devices, and works in a special way with file deletion (which - is not indicated - approx. perev ) to reduce SSD wear).

13. Give now our package quick launch pad!


You probably noticed that the good old Quick Launch bar is not only disabled by default in Windows 7 - it is generally not in the list of available panels. As I think it’s clear to everyone, it’s replaced by the concept of “pinned applications”, which is supported by the new taskbar.
Based on early testing, we can say that the vast majority of users (meaning not those who read this blog, with the exception of perhaps my mom), this model is quite suitable. But if you are a fan of the old approach, you will be glad to know that the old labels are still in place. To enable them, do the following:
  • Right click on the taskbar, Toolbars / New Toolbar
  • In the folder selection dialog, enter the following line and click OK:
    % userprofile% \ AppData \ Roaming \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ Quick Launch
  • Turn off the “lock the taskbar” setting and right-click on the separator (obviously, on the newly created panel - approx. Translations ). Make sure Show text and Show title are disabled, and “small icons” are selected as the view.
  • Use dividers to move the panel to where it is convenient, and then fix the taskbar again.


If this is not entirely obvious from the tedious process described above, then it is worth noting that we do not really support the idea that users enable this panel. But, if you really need it - it is.
But in any case, we would really like you to try the new model and write to us if, for some reason, it did not satisfy your needs.

14. It's a Drag


Note Perev: the pun is drag - pull, and drug is a drug. The phrase It's a drug - translates as "It's just a drug," "I can’t tear myself away."
In Windows 7, much is tied to the jump list, which allows applications such as Windows Live Messenger to provide convenient controls directly from the taskbar. "Quick Actions" replace the standard context menu on the taskbar. In addition to the standard, there is another way to call them - "pull" the panel button a little up and release. This behavior was done for devices with screen input (touch-based).

Another place where you can repeat the last trick is the address bar in IE8, where a “pull-down” gesture literally draws an extended list consisting of history, bookmarks and other similar elements. The slower you pull, the cooler the animation!

15. Standards support


Each review of Windows 7 that I saw from the main innovations of WordPad and Paint highlighted a menu in the style of Office2007. However, few people paid attention to one small, but, I think, expected thing: WordPad can now view and save not only Office Open XML documents (compatible with Word 2007), but also documents such as OpenDocument (ODF).

WordPad  File Open Dialog - New Types!

16. Windows-Vista style taskbar


I did not immediately like the Windows 7 taskbar, but closer to beta it was finalized, and now I use it actively. For those who prefer the classic look, the good news is that the taskbar can be configured to most closely match it from previous versions of Windows.
Task bar.  old style
To get this view, call the context menu on the taskbar and open the Properties dialog. Select the “Small icons” item and in the group of the “taskbar buttons” tab group select “combine when taskbar is full”. The panel will not be exactly the same, but in terms of functionality - it is very close.

17. On the desktop with one eye


While we are on the taskbar, we note one more trifle. You probably noticed a small rectangle in the right corner: this is the functionality that we call “Aero Peak”. It allows you to see gadgets or icons on your desktop. It is worth noting that for this there is a hotkey - Win + Space

18. Run with elevated privileges


Want to quickly launch an application pinned on the taskbar with administrator privileges? Easy: hold Ctrl + Shift and click on the application icon (of course, your account must have the appropriate rights).

19. Repeat, please!


I saw people who were baffled by the following. Suppose you already have some application open (for example, a command line) and you want to open a second copy of the same application. You do not need to go to the Start menu again. Just hold Shift and click on the icon on the taskbar, and instead of switching to an existing window, a new copy of this application will be opened. The same effect can be achieved by clicking on this button with the middle mouse button .

20. Switching to specific windows


Another innovation that will appeal to experienced users allows you to switch between windows of one application. For example, if you have 5 messages open in Outlook, you can quickly switch between them by holding Ctrl and pressing the button on the taskbar. This is much more convenient than looking for these windows in the Alt + Tab dialog.

21. Walk on the taskbar


The combination of Win + T will shift focus to the taskbar, after which you can use the cursor to move between applications. Enter activates the selected application / group. Esc will remove focus from the taskbar.

Task bar.  Vertically

22. Tricks for wide screens


Almost every display sold today is widescreen. This is convenient for watching movies, but at work you can feel a certain stiffness vertically.

Therefore, the first thing I do during installation is to move the taskbar to the left. We do not put it there by default, because there are still a lot of old monitors, and we would get a huge amount of complaints.

Previously, Windows poorly supported alternatives to panel layout. Yes, you could move the panel to the left, but it looked unnatural, the gradients could be wrong, the start menu became uncomfortable and in general, you felt like a citizen of the "second grade". the taskbar in Windows 7 looks like it was designed for the position on the left. Moving the panel after pressing Win + T (mentioned above) immediately switches from “right-left” to “up-down”, and a new convenience is that you increase your workspace vertically.

I seriously say: if you have a wide screen, and especially on a netbook, try this placement. At first it may seem a little unusual, but then you will appreciate and do not want to come back!

23. Attach frequent folders


If you often work with some 4-5 folders, you can quickly attach them to the Explorer button on the taskbar. While holding the right mouse button, drag the folder to the taskbar and it will automatically be placed in the “Jump Actions” button of the explorer.

24. Opening Explorer from the My Computer folder


If you spend more time outside the My Documents folder, then it will probably be convenient for you to change the standard directory of the explorer so that it opens my Computer.
Semiconductor Ivan Susanin.  My computer
To do this, open the Start menu, find Explorer there - it is in the Accessories folder - and change the program to be launched to
% SystemRoot% \ explorer.exe / root, :: {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

If you If you also want to change the behavior of the button on the taskbar, then you will need to unpin it and pin it again. But this is all nonsense, because Win + E will still open My documents. I did not find a way to change this.

25. ClearType setup and monitor calibration


Now, if you want to adjust the color rendering or font smoothing, there are standard utilities for this. Surprisingly, a slight dimming of colors, along with stretching the gamut a little up - and now the fonts on my laptop look much clearer. Are you adjusting the color rendition for the 42-inch TV that you bought yesterday? Why not do the same for the monitor you are looking at all day?

Cleartype  Calibration

You can run through the utilities cttune.exe and dccw.exe , or through the control panel.

26. Recording ISO images


Easy to miss if not looking. Double-clicking on the ISO image file opens up a useful little applet that allows you to burn this image to a blank disc. And no more searching for paid utilities of dubious origin!

Windows 7. Burn ISO image

27. Windows Movie Maker


Currently, Windows 7 does not include video editing utilities. This is because Movie Maker is now included in the Windows Live Essentials package and is now in the processing phase. For the "early birds," so far, the advice will be to use Windows Movie Maker 2.6. It does not have all the effects that are in Windows Vista and it does not support editing HD-video but the rest of the functionality works.

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Download Windows Movie Maker 2.6 at this link

28. Hiding the Windows Live Messenger Icon


I hope the first thing you did after installing Windows 7 beta was to download a set of Windows Live Essentials utilities (if not, then many of the innovations in Windows 7 bypass you). If you spend a lot of time in instant messaging clients, you will like that the Windows Live Messenger icon is clearly visible and always in the center of the taskbar. From there, you can easily change status or send someone a message.

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On the other hand, you might want to keep it only in the system tray (tray), as in previous versions. To do this, you can very easily fool the application, simply edit the launch shortcut and set the properties to “Run in Windows Vista compatibility mode”.

29. Enjoy the fish


I am surprised that few have understood the joke with Rumble Fish (Siamese fighting fish) on standard wallpaper. So I will not reveal the secret. For those who are interested - wikipedia to help. (The answer is really easy to find - approx. Re)

30. When nothing works ...


There may be disappointments - the system does not boot. And what you really want at this moment is something to gain access to the drive and the command console. Windows 7 now includes the ability to create a rescue disk, which of course is a bootable version of Windows that includes a console and a set of system utilities. Just write “system repair disc” in the search bar of the Start menu and you will find a utility for creating it.

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